Choral Featured Album: 'Beethoven: Missa solemnis'

Hear selections from new releases with our weekly Choral Featured Album Fridays at 11 a.m. central on the Choral Stream.

This week on the Choral Featured Album, we present Beethoven: Missa solemnis, the new release from Bach Collegium Japan. The ensemble and conductor Masaaki Suzuki are joined by soloists Ann-Helen Moen, Roxana Constantinescu, James Gilchrist, and Benjamin Bevan for this recording of Beethoven's masterpiece. Read more about the history of the work below (excerpt from BIS site).

Beethoven began composing the Missa solemnis in 1819, when he learned that his patron (and pupil) Archduke Rudolph was going to be appointed Cardinal Archbishop of Olmutz. The plan was for the mass to be ready for performance at the enthronement celebrations in March 1820, but one year proved to be too little time. It wasn't until almost three years later, in January 1823, that Beethoven was able to complete the work.

As might be expected, it was unparalleled in every respect — although composed for use during church services, even Beethoven's contemporaries found that it exceeded the bounds of the genre. Beethoven himself was quite aware of both the dimensions and the importance of the work: in a letter he described it as 'my greatest work.' It is also a work which over its course encompasses great contrasts: from the solemnity of the Kyrie and the intense excitement at the opening of the Gloria to the disturbing intimations of war during the closing Dona nobis pacem.

Resources

Beethoven: Missa solemnis (BIS)
Bach Collegium Japan (official site)