Missa solemnis

Beethoven described his Missa solemnis as his greatest work several times, a work which, coming "from the heart," was to touch and move audiences. The surviving sources enable us to recognize how intensively and how long he worked on the composition in order to give what he felt was adequate expression to the text. In its length and musical demands, the Missa solemnis goes far beyond typical liturgical settings, and the premiere took place, for good reason, in a concert hall. The chorus plays a key structural role in the work, and in the process has to master some extremely demanding sections.

The leading Beethoven expert Ernst Herttrich has produced an Urtext edition based on the available sources, and reflecting the latest state of scholarship.