| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-Nov-2012 Segerstrom Center for the Arts: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall | John Eliot Gardiner enlightens with Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in Orange County |
 Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is an odd piece. Despite having a rich recorded legacy, it is not a piece that one encounters often in the concert hall. The technical challenges of this music are up there with virtually any other piece of combined music for choir and orchestra. As performed by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Monteverdi Choir last night, its difficulty was dispatched with an awe-inspiring fervor.Read full review... | |
| 4-Nov-2011 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | A mixed Missa Solemnis at the Festival Hall |
| Whether intentionally or not, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has done Christianity’s street cred a great service this week. As the St Paul’s protest furore continues to grow, the orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis was a reminder that for the composer and countless others, religion is first and foremost about the comfort of spirituality. Conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the Philharmonia Chorus joined the OAE and four vocal soloists for this great big Christian Hug in a Mug.
Read full review... | |
| 4-Sep-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 67: Failing to reach the top of Mount Everest |
 The last of this season’s Proms Choral Sundays featured one of the most complex of all choral works, Beethoven’s massive Missa Solemnis, written around the time of his 9th symphony. Sir Colin Davis likened performing it to “Failing to reach the top of Mount Everest”, and Sara Mohr-Pietsch (in her excellent Proms Plus talk) mentioned the description of “the most famous work you have never heard”. For many years I have been uncertain about this work. The complexity of his musical language does not make it an easy work to comprehend. It brims with uncertainty and confusion.Read full review... | |
