Recorded at the BBC Proms in 1982, this performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is a stirring account, despite some deficiencies of the recorded sound. Georg Solti led the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and the London Philharmonic Orchestra with considerable energy and sensitivity, and the voices of soprano Helen Donath, mezzo-soprano Doris Soffel, tenor Siegfried Jerusalem, and bass Hans Sotin were nearly ideally matched, so this is a compelling performance that surely must have moved its audience. However, the recording is plagued throughout by analog tape hiss, distortion from audio overload, shallow dimensions, and a low but sustained level of audience noise. These are hardly problems for dedicated collectors of historic recordings, who have certainly heard much worse, but the modern listener who has access to audiophile recordings may find the surface roughness of this disc to be a serious liability. Solti's versions with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic offer much better sound, so those are options for listeners who are unhappy with the reproduction here. But if the volume is set high enough, it is possible to hear this performance with better concentration and to appreciate its emotional impact.