This performance has two things going for it: the Tölzer Knabenchor, and Randall Scarlata's dignified and well-sung performance as the Celebrant. Everything else is simply vile. Kristjan Järvi conducts as if he's late for an appointment somewhere (anywhere) else. The opening Kyrie is a blur, the text incomprehensible, while the climactic Dona Nobis Pacem is chaotic in a bad way. The individual street singers are mostly awful. I can accept the thick German accent in "World Without End"--indeed, it could have been kind of cool in a decadent sort of way--but Ruth Kraus can't even pronounce the words. The "blues" singer in the Confession sounds more like he ought to be yodeling on an Alp. The principal soloist in "God Said" hams it up in a sorry parody of the real Broadway style, and it's all recorded as a horrible multi-track pop album extravaganza, with the solo voices way, way too close. Disgusting. Avoid at all costs. [8/4/2009]

--David Hurwitz