Missa solemnis premiere: First rites, The

Musical Times, Autumn 1998 by Jones, David Wyn

When was Beethoven's Missa solemnis first performed? DAVID WYN JONES investigates.

THE ACCEPTED history of the composition and early performances of Beethoven's Missa solemnis is a familiar one. The composer began work on the mass in March 1819 with the intention that it should be performed at a church service in Olmutz to celebrate the enthronement of his patron and pupil, Archduke Rudolph, as archbishop. The ceremony was set for March 1820 but the emerging colossal ambition of the work meant that it was not completed until 1823, four years after it was begun. The Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei were performed in Beethoven's benefit concert at the Karntnertortheater in Vienna on 7 May 1824 alongside the overture The consecration of the house and the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. Meanwhile, a complete performance of the mass had taken place in St Petersburg on 7 April 1824, organised by Prince Galitzin and prepared from a manuscript score sold by the composer.

What, therefore, is to made of the following report on a concert in Vienna in October 1821 which appeared in a local journal, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung?

A Missa Solemnis by Beethoven followed. The imposing, fantastic compositional power of this master emerges from the deeply felt harmonious choruses, and so tenderly do the sorrowful calls of Eleison stir the heart; the daring eagle flight of the composer praises just as powerfully in the exultant Gloria. Heartfelt and soulful are the solo passages that emerge from the frenzied large multitudes, and the heart yields itself joyfully to their thrilling impression.

If Beethoven's daring genius occasionally presents its images in too sharp a light, or if some of the features are too strongly characterised, then he repeatedly shows the ability to appease the excited mood of the listener. Undeniably, the impression of this great work is hugely exalted and powerful. The precision of the orchestra was well evident here too. The solo parts were sung by Mademoiselles Kamper and Weiss, and Herren Seipelt and Rauscher; they were generally well executed. l

Given the date of this concert - 1821, two years before the work was completed - it could be argued that the term `missa solemnis' was being used in the generic sense of a `most solemn mass' (or a `High Mass') and that the work in question was Beethoven's first mass, the Mass in C, dating from 1807. But there is a good deal of compelling circumstantial evidence to suggest that the Kyrie and Gloria from the Missa solemnis were, indeed, the two movements performed at this concert.

THE concert was the first in the 1821-22 season of the Concerts Spirituels, a leading concert organisation in Vienna whose driving force was Franz Xaver Gebauer (1784-1822). From 1816 he had been in charge of music at one of the principal churches in the city, the Augustinerkirche, where he had revitalised standards after years of decline. In the autumn of 1819, together with Ferdinand Piringer, he established a new concert series, the Concerts Spirituels, designed to present sacred music alongside orchestral works, especially symphonies by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The concerts were held between four and six in the evening and consisted of the playing through of music without prior rehearsal, rather than a formal concert; often only selected movements from masses were performed rather than the complete works. At first the venue was the assembly room of the Mehlgrube on the Neuer Markt, where Mozart had performed in the 1780s, but soon the concerts moved to a larger room, the so-called Landstandischer Saal in the Herrengasse. During the first two seasons works by Beethoven were frequently performed and the organisation played a notable part in keeping his earlier music known in Vienna at a time when the composer was preoccupied with unprecedently ambitious works such as the 'Diabelli' variations, the late piano sonatas, the op.126 bagatelles and the Missa solemnis, and when he had become personally detached from public music making. Between the autumn of 1819 and the spring of 1821 all eight of Beethoven's symphonies to date were performed, together with the Mass in C, the chorus Meeresstille und glickliche Fahrt and the ever popular oratorio, Christus am Oelberge.2

Beethoven knew Gebauer well. As well as being the butt of his inveterate feeble punning, 'Geh Bauer' (Go, peasant), his name figures in the conversation books that the deaf composer now habitually provided for his friends and guests. Many entries in the late winter, spring and summer of 1820 shed useful light on their professional relationship, in particular Gebauer's interest in the progress of the Missa solemnis. In March Gebauer paid a visit to Beethoven. To his written questions and remarks, Beethoven replied orally but the answers are easily conjectured.3 Gebauer comments politely that everyone wishes that Beethoven would organise a concert of his music, since he must have so much that is new. Beethoven probably replied that he found the whole business of organising concerts a burden; Gebauer then offers to undertake the running costs and other responsibilities. Beethoven mentions that he is supposed to be writing an oratorio for the 'Verein', that is another Viennese organisation, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, and enquires after the content of the next concert to be presented by the Concerts Spirituels. Gebauer replies that the concert, to be held on the following day, will consist of a symphony by Haydn and a new mass with full orchestra specially composed for the organisation by Friedrich Schneider of Leipzig. Beethoven's interest in the Concerts Spirituels is evident and Gebauer paints an enthusiastic picture of `practice concerts ('Uebungskonzerte') that feature 48 singers, a full orchestra (as in the theatre he writes) and containing up to an hour of vocal music. He repeats his offer to organise a concert on Beethoven's behalf, including `the day, the room and the people'. After further conversation about his work at the Augustinerkirche Gebauer wrote What are you writing at the moment?'; Beethoven presumably replied that it was a mass. Gebauer's final written remark is a list of works in manuscript that he wants to borrow: `The chorus and the scores of nos. 5 and 6'. the chorus, Meeresstille und gluckliche Fahrt, was performed twice in the next few weeks. `No.6', the Pastoral symphony, was set for the last concert of the season before which Gebauer had another conversation with Beethoven about the unusual instrumentation of that work: he writes `Trombones are also required?' and the single word 'Piccolo'.4 The Fifth Symphony was duly performed the following autumn in the second season of the Concerts Spirituels.