Toronto Mendelssohn Choir/Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, performed by Jean-Sébastien Vallée, that includes soprano Tracy Cantin, mezzo-soprano Simona Genga, tenor Frédéric Antoun, baritone Brett Polegato, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Roy Thomson Corridor, Apr. 4.
In a letter dated June 5, 1822, Beethoven known as the Missa Solemnis his biggest work.
Judging by the rapturous viewers response that erupted on the finish of Missa Solemnis, the mighty musical forces underneath conductor Jean-Sébastien Vallée had simply given Beethoven’s epic masterpiece its simply due.
Missa Solemnis is a late work written across the identical time because the composer’s ninth Symphony, and there are actually echoes of that revered piece within the mass. In truth, Beethoven drew on many alternative kinds in crafting Missa Solemnis, together with monastic chants, polyphony and notably fugue, which he fused along with influences from Palestrina, Bach, Handel, Hayden, and Mozart.
However the coronary heart of Missa Solemnis — that which empowers the music — is the majesty and grandeur of a Beethoven symphony.
Background
The inspiration for Missa Solemnis was to honour the composer’s nice patron and expensive pal, Archduke Rudoph of Austria, and the latter’s elevation to Archbishop of Olmütz which was to happen on March 9, 1820.
Beethoven, nevertheless, missed the date of the archduke’s investiture as a result of it took the composer 4 years, till 1824 the truth is, to finish this large endeavor. Composing Missa Solemnis was essentially the most time Beethoven ever spent creating a piece. The mass can also be his longest piece, eclipsed solely by his opera Fidelio.
The Construction
Missa Solemnis is split into 5 sections — Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, and whereas every has its personal character, there’s a narrative circulate that hyperlinks them collectively, a symphonic stream, because it have been.
As one music historian wrote, Beethoven had a attribute disregard for performers and musicians. He had his imaginative and prescient, and he wouldn’t compromise. Because of this, the mass is fiendishly troublesome, and Vallée, the choir, the soloists and the orchestra confronted a frightening job. A efficiency of Missa Solemnis has been known as each technically and bodily exacting, with denoted velocity being essentially the most troublesome facet, together with sudden shifts in metre and tempo.
As an viewers member, one is conscious about simply how complicated and difficult the work is — for instance, the unbelievably intricate nature of the choral music, together with ridiculously excessive and low notes. And, the calls for on the soloists who are sometimes singing 4 completely different melody traces on the identical time. The rapid-fire dynamic adjustments of temper that the orchestra should deal with — furioso at one second which activates a dime into adagio.
It fell to conductor Vallée to tug all the pieces collectively, and his detailing of the various twists and turns of Beethoven’s musical genius was merely excellent.
The Choir and the Orchestra
Below the maestro’s route, the Mendelssohn Choir has turn into a really spectacular musical ensemble.
Their evenness of tone as an entire, which stems from their excellent vocal stability, coupled with their astonishing potential to cease on a dime in a single breath, speaks to the excessive diploma of Vallée’s self-discipline. The choir didn’t put a foot unsuitable all through your complete efficiency, executing their many musical difficulties with consummate professionalism. They’re an distinctive group of singers.
Then there may be the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, which has risen from the ashes to turn into a phoenix of gamers. It was with shock when this acclaimed group declared chapter in 2023, however clearly their neighborhood rallied round to make sure that this august symphonic ensemble, based in 1945, would proceed to generate nice music. Their efficiency underneath Vallée was excellent.
The Sanctus requires a hauntingly lovely orchestral interlude, (a Beethoven innovation), that includes a solo violin which symbolizes the elevation of the Host. Concertmaster Bénédicte Lauzière gave a poignant and touching rendering of one among Beethoven’s most beautiful adagio passages, accompanied by a sweet-sounding orchestra manifested by Vallée’s chic studying of the rating. It was a ravishing musical expertise.
The Soloists
In contrast to different spiritual works the place the soloists are given their particular person arias, Beethoven used the quartet of singers for emphasis, nearly as in the event that they have been an integral a part of the orchestra — one other instrument, because it have been.
To that finish, Vallée had the quartet sitting behind the violins so we may solely see them once they stood up. This positioning, albeit unusual, was intelligent as a result of the singers turned a part of the entire.
The 4 Canadian soloists are very fantastic singers in their very own proper, however collectively there was an imbalance. This was the one flaw within the live performance, though it actually didn’t diminish the great affect of the efficiency in any means.
Soprano Tracy Cantin has such a ringing, even thrilling, voice that it swept over everybody else. Mezzo-soprano Simona Genga and tenor Frédéric Antoun have been a matched pair, however astonishingly, baritone Brett Polegato sounded washed out at occasions. When he lastly had a short solo that started the Miserere, his very enticing, mellifluous voice lastly broke by.
I discovered Genga’s sound to be placing, however then I really like fulsome, hearty mezzo voices. Not surprisingly, she was a Metropolitan Opera Contest semi-finalist within the 2022-2023 competitors.
For his half, Antoun possesses an excellent lyric tenor that’s easy and velvety to the ear. I first encountered Antoun on the Spoleto Competition in Charleston, South Carolina, on the very starting of his profession. In truth, I interviewed him for the Globe and Mail, as I recall, and I’m delighted that the promise he confirmed then has flowered right into a deservedly worldwide profession.
Influence
The Missa Solemnis is without doubt one of the most intensely private works that Beethoven ever composed. He was a non-observant Catholic, to the purpose the place he was accused of being a freethinker. He even produced a German model of Missa Solemnis so it could attraction to Lutheran Protestants, which exhibits how little loyalty he needed to the Catholic church and the Latin mass.
Thus, we should assume that Missa Solemnis just isn’t about spiritual fervour, however slightly, it’s an expression of the composer’s intense spirituality and his quest for the which means of life. Beethoven was, in spite of everything, a product of the Enlightenment.
Remaining Ideas
A mass is a meditation, a prayer, an acceptance of the divine, a consolation for the believer, however Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is unsettling. The eagerness and the emotion, the boldness and the problem, the sheer overwhelming power of the music is, maybe, a mirrored image of Beethoven’s personal disaster of religion.
This inside battle is what Vallée introduced out so magnificently in his studying of the rating. This questioning spirit is what the Mendelssohn Choir and the soloists conveyed.
In flip, the viewers was captivated by the sheer energy of Beethoven’s musical genius.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, notably on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.