One of the principal merits of Robert Shaw's Atlanta performance of Ein deutsches Requiem, apart from the fact that it's contained on a single CD, is the unusually pure singing of Arleen Auger, lyrical and chaste in the fifth movement. If this is the performance's obvious highlight, there is a good deal elsewhere that is agreeably clear and uncluttered about the reading. Some, though not all, of Shaw's tempos are on the swift side, though without that attendant gravity and concentration, and that excoriating beauty of sound, which makes Klemperer's LP set of this work so compelling an experience. Richard Stilwell contributes impressively though the manner isn't so bodeful nor the voice so black as that of Haitink's soloist on Philips, Tom Krause. In the final analysis, Shaw's performance, for all its several virtues, is rather light-weight, an impression reinforced and perhaps exaggerated by the recording which, by CD standards, seems rather pale and lacking in real presence in choral passages. The judgement scene in the sixth movement lacks impact.
The Karajan performance, reviewed last September and now available on CD, has plenty of weight and the sixth movement has a juggernaut motion which confers on the music a kind of cumulative power and authority. Haitink's performance is more overtly dramatic than either Karajan's or Shaw's at this point and the Philips recording is perhaps better than that of either of its rivals. Not everyone will like Hendrick's quick vibrato in ''Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit''; certainly, after Auger it is difficult to take the Hendricks technique however exquisite the line and phrasing. I must also report that CD brings no improvement to the balances or general sound quality of Karajan's new recording of the Bruckner Te Deum.
At the moment I would advise a waiting brief for those looking for Ein deutsches Requiem on CD; on LP, famous recordings by Karajan (his 1947 Vienna set), Kempe, and Klemperer are, or were, musically preferable in their several ways.'