Messe solennelle (Berlioz)

Messe solennelle is a setting of the Catholic Solemn Mass by the French composer Hector Berlioz. It was written in 1824, when the composer was twenty, and first performed at the church of Saint-Roch, Paris on July 25 1825, and again at the church of Saint-Eustache in 1827. After this, Berlioz claimed to have destroyed the entire score except for one movement (the Resurrexit). However, in 1992 a Belgian schoolteacher, Frans Moors, came across a copy of the work in an organ gallery in Antwerp. The first modern performance was given by the conductor John Eliot Gardiner at the church of S.t Petri in Bremen on 3 October 1993 and the first world recording was made by conductor Jean-Paul Penin, on 5 October 1993 in the Vézelay Basilica.

Recordings

• Messe Solennelle, Christa Pfeiler, soprano, Ruben Velasquez, tenor, Jacques Perroni, bass, National Krakow Choir and Philharmony, UNESCO and French Presidency (François Mitterrand) patronage. Conducted by Jean-Paul Penin, october 5th, 1993, Vézelay basilica. France-Télévision, France-Musique, Accord Universal Music Group, 1994. First world recording.
• Messe solennelle, Donna Brown (soprano), Jean-Luc Viala (tenor), Gilles Cachemaille (bass), Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (Philips, 1994).

Sources

• Booklet notes to the Penin recording listed above
• Berlioz: Mémoires, Paris, Garnier-Flammarion, 1969.
• Booklet notes to the Gardiner recording listed above
• David Cairns: Berlioz: The Making of an Artist (the first volume of his biography of the composer) (André Deutsch, 1989)
• Hugh Macdonald: Berlioz ("The Master Musicians", J.M.Dent, 1982)
• Berlioz: Memoirs (Dover, 1960)

External links

• Site Berlioz 2003. [1]
• "Les Premières armes du jeune Berlioz : la Messe Solennelle", Jean-Paul Penin.
• De ontdekking van de Messe Solennelle, W. Gladines.
• La Messe Solennelle de Berlioz, oct. 13 th, 1993 La Croix
• La Messe Solennelle de Berlioz, oct. 13 th, 1993 Le Monde