• Tracks

On this album the Beethoven Hall Orchestra turns to one of the most important compositions of the oratorio literature: Beethoven's Missa solemnis. This recording conducted by Marc Soustrot with his customary fine touch features top-ranking international vocalists: the Czech Philharmonic Chorus of Brno, and renowned soloists. The Bonn composition genius himself had entitled his Missa solemnis "A Little Choral Piece." Was it really Christian humility that led him to write in his diary: "A little choral piece- written by me in the honor of the Almighty- the Eternal Infinite?" Beethoven wrote the mass during what was for him a crazy period. Works regarded by him as insignificant met with storms of enthusiasm in Vienna, while he had to witness how his considerably more important Symphony No. 7 verged on failure. Beethoven withdrew from the compositional scene for quite some time, then to return in his late oeuvre with works transcending all that was usual: Symphony No. 9, Hammerklavier, and Missa solemnis. "The choir is the real star of the recording: the singers effortlessly master the extremely high passages always supported by the precise playing orchestra." (Crescendo) "Finely performed... a deep, spacious recording of wide dynamic range with all forces nicely balanced." (Gramophone)