Beethoven Symphonies - best perf + sonics on CD

To clarify the HIP thing - this stands, as someone else said, for Historically Informed Performance. Technically, this can also refer to a performance on modern instruments, using the increased knowledge that we have thanks to scholarship of the last few decades (things like style, tempi, orchestra size, etc). However, in actual practice, this term is used interchangeably with "period performance." Period performance always implies period instruments. So the two terms should mean something different, but HIP is used in a more narrow sense than it should be.

Kmmcarty

Thanks for your post...interesting to read. I like the Gardiner Missa Solemnis...smaller ensemble (so smaller sound) but articulate reading imho and well recorded.

Shouldn't HIP be HPP for historical performance practice? Then HIPP could be historical instrumentation performance practice.

Lloydelee, yes the Gardiner Missa Solemnis is very rewarding. I've enjoyed it for many years. Another I've enjoyed over the years is the Karajan performance on DVD, live from the 1979 Easter Festival. I think this performance does a good job of capturing the spiritual impact of the piece, actually coming across more as a spiritual event than a performance, if that makes sense. I've never heard the 1935 Toscanini performance, which many consider the best recorded performance ever - although questionable sonically.

Any other rcommendations for best Missa Solemnis?

This seems to be in competition with the Gardiner ;

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis / Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent