'The greatest work that I have ever written' - this is how Beethoven later described the Missa solemnis, which would have celebrated the installation of Beethoven's original patron, Archduke Rudolf, as archbishop of Olomouc. Except that the composition grew ever more monumental in Beethoven's hands, and citing obligations that were delaying the work's progress and the fatigues of everyday life, the composer would write apologetically that 'given the circumstances, Your Highness will not be surprised that the mass will not be completed in time.' The archduke had already been serving as archbishop for three years in 1823 when he got his first look at the score to Missa solemnis. And so the world première of the full work took place - in April 1824 - not in Olomouc, nor even in Vienna, but rather in Saint Petersburg. Even afterwards, it still took many years before the work - grand, demanding and extraordinary in every sense - would take its rightful place in the concert repertoire, along with the fulfilment of the wish that Beethoven had written above the Kyrie on the original manuscript: 'From the heart - may it find its way to the heart!' Joining Concerto Budapest and conductor György Vashegyi to perform this masterpiece that demands so much from the performers will be the Purcell Choir.

Presented by: Concerto Budapest