Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis Ludwig van Beethoven / Composer Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra UMS Choral Union Scott Hanoian / Conductor Erin Wall / Soprano Kelley O’Connor / Mezzo-soprano Matthew Plenk / Tenor Nathan Stark / Bass Saturday Evening, March 11, 2017 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor 45th Performance of the 138th Annual Season Choral/Vocal Series Tonight’s presenting sponsor is the Jerry Blackstone UMS Choral Union Performance Fund. Media partnership provided by WRCJ 90.9 FM. In consideration of the artists and the audience, please refrain from the use of electronic devices during the performance. The photography, sound recording, or videotaping of this performance is prohibited. PROGRAM Ludwig van Beethoven Missa Solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 Kyrie Gloria Credo Sanctus Benedictus Agnus Dei This evening’s program will be performed without intermission. 3 MISSA SOLEMNIS IN D MAJOR, OP. 123 (1822–23) Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died March 26, 1827 in Vienna UMS premiere: Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union conducted by Frederick Stock with soprano Elsie Baker, mezzo-soprano Betsy Lane Shepard, tenor Arthur Hackett, and bass William Simmons; May 1927 in Hill Auditorium. Snapshots of History…In 1823: · The congress of Central America declares absolute independence from Spain, Mexico, and any other foreign nation including North America, and a republican system of government is established · The Goals Act is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, based on the prison reform campaign of Elizabeth Fry · Simón Bolívar is named President of Peru Hearing the Missa Solemnis is always successful. The composer keenly felt an extraordinary experience — and that he had yet to reach the summit of the enormous difficulty of the score his art in the realm of church music. guarantees that live encounters will It was an external circumstance that never be too frequent. This work provided the initial impulse for what shows what can happen when a turned out to be one of the crowning genius consciously decides to outdo masterpieces of Beethoven’s later himself in an all-encompassing work years. The composer’s favorite pupil, that expresses profound spirituality the Archduke Rudolph (the younger and realizes a musical vision never brother of Emperor Franz I), was going previously conceived. to become Archbishop of Olmütz Beethoven, though raised as a (now Olomouc, Czech Republic), and Roman Catholic, was not a regular the solemn Mass had been intended churchgoer. Yet of course he was for performance at the installation familiar with the liturgy, and considered ceremony. But Beethoven missed the writing sacred music to be the highest deadline; in fact, the Mass wasn’t goal to which a composer could aspire. finished until two years after the event He admired Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s it was originally meant to celebrate. masses and oratorios and, above all, Once this extraordinary Mass was Mozart’s Requiem, but he himself had completed, Beethoven wanted to milk attempted religious composition only it for all it was worth: he conducted twice in his entire life. However, neither parallel negotiations with several the oratorio Christ on the Mount of publishers, breaking promises and Olives (1803) nor the Mass in C (1807) going behind the back of one firm to could be said to have been particularly get a better deal with another. The 4 full score was finally printed by Schott the heart: may it reach the heart.” in Mainz, but not until 1827, the year Musically, this fervent wish finds of Beethoven’s death. In 1823, the expression in the fact that most of composer had taken subscription the themes in the work are not based orders to have manuscript copies on song-like, symmetrical phrases prepared expressly for some of his but are, instead, short, gesture-like most influential admirers — including utterances. The setting of the opening Prince Nikolai Galitzin, for whom he word of the Mass, “Kyrie” (Lord), had also written three of his late string sung on a single repeated note by quartets. It was Galitzin who arranged the chorus, is a good example for for the world premiere, which took this eminently dramatic approach to place in St. Petersburg in April 1824. the text. It is only after the tone has In Vienna, only three of the five been set by these powerful single movements were ever heard during chords that a gentler melodic figure is Beethoven’s lifetime. introduced on “eleison” (have mercy). During the last decade of his life, The isolated gestures contrast with a Beethoven experienced a kind of more continuous melodic flow in the spiritual awakening. In the Missa “Christe,” begun by the four soloists; solemnis, he wanted to communicate the sustained motion is generated by that experience to the world; as he polyphonic imitation. wrote in a letter, “My chief aim was The “Gloria” and “Credo” to awaken and permanently instill movements always present a special religious feelings not only in the challenge because of the great singers but also in the listeners.” In length of their texts. Many composers order to achieve this aim, Beethoven have broken up these texts into held nothing back. The vocal parts several independent movements (not only those of the soloists but to make them more manageable, the chorus as well) are fiendishly but Beethoven opted for a single difficult; harmonically and structurally, uninterrupted musical statement, Beethoven’s music was never more unified by a recapitulation of the complex than here. Yet, listening to opening “Gloria” theme at the very the Missa, one understands that it end, and of the “Credo” theme less would not have been enough to numerous times throughout that transmit the composer’s vision to the movement. In between those motivic audience. A fiercely individual free restatements, we have a wide variety thinker grappling with the mysteries of motifs in different keys, tempos, of God, death, and afterlife — the and orchestrations, as dictated stakes have never been higher in a by the emotional content of the piece of music, and the composer individual words and lines. Starting had to make use of every expressive and ending with an ecstatic praise means at his disposal. of God, the “Gloria” passes through This insistence on communication some moments of introspection: after (or communion) with the audience the words “Gratias agimus tibi,” the is apparent from the inscription on initial exuberance gives way to more the first page of the score: “From subdued feelings, as the solemn 5 proclamation about God is followed centers around a slow middle section by a direct address of God (“We give which, in this case, begins with the you thanks”). After a brief return to words “Et incarnatus est” (And He the original “Gloria” mood, we reach became incarnate). The birdsong- the heart of the movement with like high trills of the flute during this “Qui tollis” (You who take away the section depict the Holy Spirit, often sins of the world), where the tempo represented in paintings as a dove. drops to larghetto and the quartet The “homo” in “Homo factus est” (he of soloists intones an intimate plea was made man) once again receives for mercy. With “Quoniam” (For you special treatment, before we reach alone are holy), private prayer once the most tragic part of the movement again changes to public worship. with the mention of crucifixion. Tradition demanded that the “Gloria” The musical image of resurrection, movement end with a fugue, but in immediately following, maximizes the present case, the music takes a dramatic contrast and leads directly dramatic turn when, after an emphatic to the recapitulation, inevitable here restatement of the theme in slow because of the reappearance of motion (augmentation, to use the the word “Credo” in the text. Here technical term), the excitement Beethoven rather quickly passes over reaches fever pitch as the tempo a few articles of faith (especially the suddenly increases. It is at the reference to the Holy Catholic and climactic moment of this development Apostolic Church) to arrive at another that the theme from the beginning major choral fugue on the words “Et of the movement returns (in a faster vitam venturi saeculi” (And to life ever tempo than the first time), closing after). The fugue culminates in an the circle at the end of a fascinating extremely elaborate treatment of the spiritual journey. word “Amen,” including a cadenza for The next movement, the “Credo,” the four solo singers resembling an is another spiritual journey, even analogous moment near the end of more complex than the “Gloria.” The the Ninth Symphony. dogmas of the Catholic Church as To Beethoven, the “Sanctus,” codified in the Nicene Creed from the the solemn proclamation of God’s year 325 never lent themselves easily holiness, was not a matter of to musical treatment. Beethoven set exuberant fanfares; he approached the first word, “Credo” (I believe) to it instead like a mystery, with a short and pithy motif that serves some rather unusual harmonic as the glue holding the entire progressions and a choral recitative movement together. From the start, where the singers seem almost the “I” receives at least as much tongue-tied in their awe before the emphasis as the “believe.” At the incomprehensible. Then, at “Pleni words “qui propter nos homines” (who sunt coeli et terra gloria tua” (Heaven for us humans), the music suddenly and earth are full of your glory), turns gentle and lyrical to illustrate a true celebration begins. After a the descent from heaven to earth. brief, ecstatic “Osanna,” we come As with the “Gloria,” the “Credo” to another moment of introspection, 6 perhaps the most powerful of all: soloists sounds positively “anxious” the celebrated “Benedictus,” with (ängstlich), according to Beethoven’s its famous violin solo.