Poster Beethoven, 1820
A portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820.
Image via Wikimedia Commons

Beethoven's Mass in C foreshadows his Ninth Symphony

Learning to Listen: Beethoven's Mass in C

Beethoven's most famous choral work is his Symphony No. 9, nicknamed "The Choral Symphony".

His other large-scale choral works include his only opera, Fidelio, his Choral Fantasy, and two masses; the Mass in C and his Missa Solemnis, or Solemn Mass.

Beethoven wrote his Mass in C in 1814, toward the end of what's considered his "middle" period.

If you're familiar with his Choral Symphony, you'll hear moments in the Mass in C that foreshadow that epic work.

Playlist

Ludwig van Beethoven
Rural Cantata
Christa Jehser, soprano
Joachim Vogt, Wolfgang Wagner, tenors
Siegfried Hausmann, bass
Walter Olbertz, piano
Dietrick Knothe, conductor
DG 453794

Joseph Haydn
Harmony Mass, "Gloria"
Chamber Choir of Namur
La Petite Bande
Sigiswald Kuijken
DHM 77337

Ludwig van Beethoven
Mass in C
The Monteverdi Choir
The Revolutionary and Romantic Orchestra
Archiv 435391

Anon
Psalm 121, Negra Sum Sed Formosa
Seraphic Fire
Western Michigan University Chorale
Patrick Dupré Quigley
SFM 107

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