Music review: SCO: Missa Solemnis

For even the finest choirs, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is like scaling the north face of the Eiger. Beethoven spent years mapping out his extensive, heavy-duty setting of the mass, ultimately producing a choral challenge that is mercilessly uncompromising, set against orchestral writing as complex, unorthodox and unpredictable as the Ninth Symphony. By the end of this fine-tuned performance by the SCO, its excellent chorus and fortifying team of soloists under Finnish conductor John Storgårds, the mountain had been well and truly conquered. What can so often seem like an endurance, was here a euphoric success from start to finish.