Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Polina Pasztircsák, Sophie Harmsen, Steve Davislim, Johannes Weisser, RIAS Kammerchor
Orchestra: Freiburger Barockorchester
Conductor: René Jacobs
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalogue: HMM902427
Release: 2021
Size: 1.18 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Missa Solemnis, op. 123
01. Kyrie “Kyrie eleison” – “Christie eleison” – “Kyrie eleison”
02. Gloria “Gloria in excelsis Deo”
03. Gloria “Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam”
04. Gloria “Qui tollis peccata mundi”
05. Gloria “Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris”
06. Gloria “Quoniam tu solus Sanctus”
07. Credo “Credo in umum Deum”
08. Credo “Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto”
09. Credo “Et resurrexit tertia die”
10. Credo “Et vitam venturi sæculi”
11. Sanctus “Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth” – “Hosanna in excelsis”
12. Sanctus. Präludium
13. Benedictus “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini” – “Hosanna in excelsis”
14. Agnus Dei “Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi”
15. Agnus Dei “Dona nobis pacem”
Written between 1818 and 1823, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis was the result of intensive theological and musical research in the library of it’s dedicatee, Archduke Rudolph of Austria. It is, in Beethoven’s own view, his most ambitious composition. On this recording, René Jacobs shows us that it is also his loftiest. This is the work of a composer with deeply held religious sentiments and profound tenderness for humanity, so confident in his artistry that he could create that which goes beyond liturgical form and expresses in musical terms the universality of divine transcendence.
Faced with the plethora of Beethoven recordings released in 2020, we expect more from some than from others, and this applies to this Missa Solemnis. An absolute masterpiece of Western music, it is conducted by René Jacobs, whose recent recording of Leonore (the first version of the opera Fidelio by the same Beethoven) conquered the musical world.
Composed in 1824, the Missa, “a rough and uncomfortable work that leaves no room for narcissism in the singers” according to René Jacobs (and he would know what he is talking about!) is an older sister to the Ninth Symphony which shares the same faith in man over divinity. Recorded in Berlin in May 2019, this version packs as intense a gut-punch as a live concert.
The understated and profound Kyrie brings shadow and meditation. Then, a surging explosive Gloria, a stirring call for peace and brotherhood, from the heart of all humanity presses this splendid performance onward. Without doubt, the RIAS Kammerchor has added one more stone to an edifice of recordings of the highest quality. In addition we are treated to an instrumental finale rarely heard and four soloists who contribute to the expressive power of the whole. All of Beethoven is here, with his idealism, his tenderness, and also his way of hammering out peace with mighty blows. As Goethe would have said “He would squash a fly with a rock”.