Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is a difficult piece. It is rarely performed. It may be the greatest piece of music that is (almost) never heard. Nearly 90 minutes long, it requires a large chorus, orchestra and four soloists. It's impractical for the concert hall and doesn't really fit into a church service. There's also a raw honesty to the work, as if the agnostic Beethoven is trying to convince himself that God really exists by conjuring up religious awe - and it's not clear that he succeeds. It is a multifaceted and huge structure that storms the heavens. I was going to skip it in this series of choral music when I realized that I had never really listened to it - at least not with concentration. Now was the time! And then I also discovered the performance linked below by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, playing on authentic instruments from Beethoven's time and in an authentic style that opens up the thick acoustic - it's light and not at all bombastic, a great contrast to the heavy-handed performances by so-called "great" conductors with huge modern orchestras and bloated choruses (we won't name names here). Yes, I was won over by this performance, but all the same I still have the feeling that Beethoven is going over the top in order to convince himself...
On March 8, 1820, Beethoven began to write a large-scale Mass to celebrate the appointment of his pupil, patron and friend, Archduke Rudolf, as Archbishop of Olmütz in Moravia. However, because Beethoven immersed himself in the text of the Mass, the work was severely delayed. During its completion, Beethoven found himself in need of money. On the one hand, Beethoven presented the Kyrie, the Credo and the Agnus Dei as "secular" hymns, which were performed in concert even before the Mass was completed in its entirety. These movements were also played at the May 1824 concert that included the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. He also sent these three movements to potential patrons with the intention that they would support him financially as he worked on the rest of the Mass.
A Russian prince, impressed by the work, finally accepted the challenge on the condition that the premiere take place in St. Petersburg. This was done in October 1824. This integral performance of the Missa solemnis would be the only one during Ludwig van Beethoven's lifetime - and he didn't hear it, as he remained in Vienna.
Composed between 1819 and 1823, the Missa Solemnis became the work that cost Beethoven more work than any of his other unruly masterpieces - and it's not as if the finished work doesn't show it. It may have taken an enormous amount of effort to compose, but it is also, at times, an exhausting listen.
The Missa Solemnis consists of the following sections:
Kyrie: Probably the most traditional section, the Kyrie has the classic ABA structure. The choral passages at the beginning merge into a more contrapuntal voice leading into the Christe eleison, where the four vocal soloists are introduced at the same time.
Gloria: Rapidly changing textures and themes highlight each line of the Gloria at the beginning of this movement, which is almost exemplary in its odd meter. The movement ends with the first of the work's two broad fugues on the text lines "In Gloria dei patris. Amen," which leads to a recapitulatory, heightened variation of the first part.
Credo: One of Beethoven's most remarkable pieces of music, this movement begins with a chordal sequence that later reappears and is modulated. Melancholy modal harmonies for the Incarnatus give way to increasingly expressive climaxes in the Crucifixus until the remarkable Et resurrexit, sung a cappella, which then ends abruptly. The most extraordinary part of this movement is the fugue on Et vitam venturi saeculi near the end, which contains some of the most difficult passages to sing in the entire choral literature, especially in the furious double-tempo finale.
Sanctus: Until the Benedictus of the Sanctus, the Missa Solemnis follows classical conventions. Here, however, after an orchestral "preludio," the solo violin enters at the highest pitch. It symbolizes the Holy Spirit's descent to earth in Christ's incarnation and introduces the most moving passages of the entire work.
Agnus Dei: The imploring Miserere nobis of the male voices at the beginning leads to the radiant prayer for peace, Dona nobis pacem in D major. After a fugal development, it is interrupted by confusing, warlike sounds, while the ending sounds more peaceful again. Among other things, Beethoven quotes the theme from Handel's Messiah, "And he reigns forever and ever" (from the Hallelujah Chorus).
Listen to this wonderful performance by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Cappella Amsterdam conducted by Daniel Reuss in a recording by Dutch television.
Choral Masterworks