I picked up a few CDs at a BMG sale and have so far discovered at least two
new gems.

One was the Missa Solemnis, op. 40, by Friedrich Kiel (1821-1885) sung by
Brigitte Lindner, soprano, Regine Roettger, mezzo, Elisabeth Graf, alto,
Thomas Dewald (DeWald?), tenor, and Karl Faeth, bass w/ the Koelner
Rundfunkchor and Koelner Rundfunkorchester, conducted by Helmuth Froschauer
(Capriccio 10 587).  Listening to it for the first time took me back like
Proust's *madeleine* to my student years, 50 years ago, when I was hearing
other standard repertoire choral works for the first time, like Mozart's
Requiem, Bach's b minor Mass, Brahms' German Requiem and Beethoven's Missa
Solemnis.  Indeed, had I not known the name and composer of the work to
which I was listening I would not have been surprised to learn that it was
another choral work by LvB.  I wouldn't want to draw upon myself the scorn
and ridicule for presuming to mention Beethoven and Kiel in the same
sentence, especially as I continue to think that Beethoven's Missa Solemnis
is his finest symphonic work (oops!  there's more scorn and ridicule
a-cummin'), but the Kiel *Missa* sounds to me like the work of one of the
undisputed masters:  it's free of banality and trite predictability; it has
melodies, harmonies, contrapuntal passages, and rhythms, that to me sound
interesting and inspired, and make me wish I'd heard the work earlier in my
life.  (Incidentally, I discovered today that, at least sometimes, I can
recognize Beethoven w/ minimal clues.  I recognized the slow movement of
his Second Piano Concerto on the car radio from just two, maybe three
notes.  I probably couldn't do that w/ all of his works!)

The other find is from a Decca "Twofer" (289 460 299/200-2; BMG No.
D233169) containing Scriabin's Symphonies and his Poem of Ecstasy,
conducted by Ashkenazy w/ the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.  I
haven't listened to the whole set yet and what I've heard is fine, but I
liked particularly the First Symphony, in E, op.  26, especially its final
vocal movement, a praise to art sung by two soloists (Brigitte Balleys,
mezzo and Sergei Larin, tenor) and chorus, to words by the composer.  I
could follow the Russian only in the liner notes' translation (I might
have been able to follow the Russian w/ a dictionary if the text had been
written in Cyrillic characters rather than transliterated!) but I found the
solo parts beautifully sung leaving me totally unprepared for the ensuing
magnificent, majestic choral portion based simply on the two lines "Praise
be to art, forever praise!" Another work to which I wish I'd been
introduced earlier in life.

Walter Meyer