APPLAUSE UNHEARD

Radio Record, 1 July 1938, Page 21

APPLAUSE UNHEARD

tained DEAF BEETHOVEN'S TRIUMPHANT "MISSA SOLEMNIS"

| steemeetemmanian BEETHOVEN was in his fortyeighth year when he began his astonishing "Missa Solemnis’ aemeat the very height, that is, of his powers. The eight symphonies were behind him; before lay the tremendous "Ninth" and the last String Quartets. In the summer of 1818, the composer’s friend and patron, the Archduke Rudolf, was appointed Archbishop of Olmutz, and Beethoven con eeived the idea of writing a grand mass for his installation, fixed for March, 1820. He worked at it enthusiastically and sometimes under most trying conditions. In fact, the work became almost an obsession with him, and he often forgot to eat for 24 hours at a time, Schindler describes eircumstantes under which the "Credo" came into being. Beethoven was at Modling, and there was no fire or any comfort in the house, the servants had all left, no doubt on account of the composer’s sudden fits of temper, and

ED the master in his room was "singing, shouting, stamping as if in actual conflict of life and death over the fugue, ‘Ht vitam venturi’." During Beethoven’s lifetime the Mass was only oneé performed in full, and then in St. Petersburg; three of the movements, however, were played in the presence of the composer at the famous concert in 1824, when the "Ninth" first burst upon an astonished world. The audiehce was wildly enthusiastie over the new works and clamoured for the composer, but he did not hear a sound and had to be turned to face the audiencé so that he could see their applause. Entirely _ unecclesiastical jin character, this work is suited only for the concert hall-as if Beethoven had composed his "Mass" for a wider congregation than that ‘of the official church. Tt marks the composer’s entrance into that realm of metaphysical music which includes all his greatest work. On Sunday afternoon, July 3, : 2YA will broadeast Béethoven’s"Missa -Solemnis,". sung by the Bruno Kittel Choir, with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Berlin, under ' the baton of Bruno Kittel. '