Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle, is neither "petite" at more than 80 minutes, not very "solenelle," for this is after all Rossini - his mass setting sometimes sounds a bit like opera buffa. But at age 72 Rossini was entire sincere - this is a heartfelt religious work. When he finished the score, Rossini wrote: ‘Dear Lord, here it is finished, this poor little mass. Have I just
written sacred music, or rather, sacrilegious music? I was born for
opera buffa, as you well know. Not much technique, a little bit of
heart, that’s all. Blessings to you and grant me Paradise.’
Rossini spent the past years of his life in Paris, partly a flat in the rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin, a smart central area, and partly in a neo-classical villa built for him in Passy, a commune now absorbed into the city, but then semi-rural. He and his wife established a salon that became internationally famous. The first of their Saturday evening gatherings – the samedi soirs – was held in December 1858, and the last, two months before he died in 1868. These musical salons were regularly attended by musicians and the artistic and
fashionable circles of Paris, for which Rossini wrote the entertaining pieces
Péchés de vieillesse. But these pieces were not generally intended for public performance, and he did not usually put dates of composition on the manuscripts. His last work, and in fact one of his major works, was the surprising Petite Messe Solenelle.
This is music full of drama, pathos, color and intensity. Rossini’s Petite Messe was written not for a church, but for private performance to a select audience assembled in the lavishly furnished salon of his Paris residence. That is why Rossini wrote it for a small chamber chorus and soloists accompanied by two pianos and, of all things, a harmonium. Later, Rossini also made an orchestral version, but it is really most effective in its original chamber setting.
The sheer variety of movements is extraordinary, ranging from a desolate
‘Crucifixus’, ecstatic solos, sublime duets and dramatic trios, a
hair-raising ‘Et resurrexit’, as powerful an ‘Agnus Dei’ as any of the
era, to two examples of the form of which Rossini was the
undisputed master, the fugue.
Like everything Rossini wrote the Petite Messe is bursting with attractive melodies, operatic flourishes, and deep feeling. It is an addictive pleasure.
The below performance restores this remarkable ‘old master’ to its original state, stripping the Petite Messe back to its original scoring. Instead of the inflated forces to which this work has often been treated in the past, it returns it to performance with the twelve voices for which Rossini scored it in 1864, together with an accompaniment of two pianos and a harmonium.
Listen to: Groot Omroepkoor conducted by Leonardo Garcia Alarcón, in a registration by the Dutch television.
Choral Masterworks