Ludwig's Mass

I had formulated a few ideas on what to write about this work, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and on scanning the booklet notes found my thoughts repeated; that it is generally respected rather than loved and receives relatively few performances considering the composer and the type of work that it is. The notes then go on to make the case for the greatness of the work, which I don't doubt, and the way in which the setting transcends the traditional mass to consider the overwhelming power and grandeur of God set against the insignificance of man. I take all that on board but can't get away from my own reaction, which has been that it is a work I return to infrequently. It certainly took Beethoven an inordinate amount of time to complete. Admittedly this coincided with a general writer's block, illness and personal problems but I maybe think that it was a work Beethoven felt strongly that he SHOULD write but which there wasn't the driving compulsion saying that he HAD to write it. It certainly doesn't have anything transcendental like the Ode To Joy. This performance is by The Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique directed by John Eliot Gardner with the solo voices Charlotte Margiono soprano, Catherine Robbin mezzo, William Kendall tenor and Alastair Miles bass. A period instrument performance, they make a strong case for the work and I think I shall return to it a little more often to try to get a better handle on it.