Haydn and Mozart here sound a little more like Beethoven than they usually do, or than they do on the records used for comparison. The forces involved and the particularly resonant acoustic of this new recording have no doubt contributed to the likelihood of this being so, as perhaps does the fact of its being taken from a live performance. But most of all it reflects the character of the conductor and the sense of occasion which his presence brings.
The Haydn Mass inevitably calls Beethoven to mind in the Agnus Dei: the drums and trumpets of this prayer for peace in time of war have a job very similar to that of their counterparts at the same point in the Missa solemnis. In this performance the parallel is enforced with the greatest possible power and effect. Here, the first ratatatat of the drum (this is of course the Paukenmesse or ''Kettledrum Mass'' as it is sometimes called), though not loud, strikes a chill, and its crescendo to the ''Dona nobis pacem'' has a menace, both of them well beyond the relative mildness of their employment on the St John's/Guest mid-price recording on Decca. Similarly, the trumpets make their presence felt more strongly, and the choir sing their cries of ''miserere'' with dramatic intensity.
An intense concentration, one of the sure signs that a 'star' conductor is in control, is felt right from the start of the Mass. The fine earnestness of the opening with the voices singing in quiet unison over the steady soft tread of the orchestra makes an impression, sure enough, in the St John's performance, but its nature and purpose are clarified in Levine's; the crescendo and the subsequent contrasts of loud and soft are heightened. In the Gloria, the accelerando to ''Cum Sancto Spiritu'', a slight, scarcely noticeable quickening under Guest, becomes an exciting lead towards the finale, again Beethoven-like. All of this, to my mind, works well, though some may see it as underlining too heavily. Where I do feel an excess of that kind is in the Sanctus's ''Pleni sunt caeli'', where there is something frenetic about Levine, Guest's cooler enthusiasm being far preferable here.
In the Mozart, the story is much the same, except that the contrast with Peter Neumann's EMI recording ((CD) CDC7 54185-2) makes the conductor there seem almost the invisible man—which, of course, is perhaps what he should be. Here it is the opening of the Gloria which suggests Beethoven: in Levine, but never in Neumann. Here, too, the Agnus Dei is taken slowly (6'30'' to Neumann's 5'38'', just as in the Haydn, Levine takes 6'57'' to Guest's 5'45''), the effect being in both instances to increase its status in the position of finale to the Mass-as-symphony.
The acoustic, as I say, is reverberant, rather too much so. The Berlin Philharmonic plays superbly, and the choir (with just a few frayed edges) is a vast improvement on the Viennese one in Levine's recording of the Mozart C minor Mass (DG, 11/91). Soloists do well, Schmidt singing beautifully in the Haydn Credo, McNair perhaps a trifle too 'prettily' in the Kyrie.'