{"id":12742,"date":"2013-06-30T12:41:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T19:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=12742"},"modified":"2013-07-05T19:23:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-06T02:23:35","slug":"obf-missa-solemnis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/30\/obf-missa-solemnis\/","title":{"rendered":"obf – missa solemnis"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been crossing works off of my musical bucket list this year at this summer’s festivals – an act from a Die Walk\u00fcre<\/em> and big chunks for Verdi’s Otello in Astoria, and now Beethoven’s massive and enigmatic Missa Solemnis<\/em> in Eugene at the Oregon Bach Festival.<\/p>\n

Whereas Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (written roughly contemporaneously to the mass) proceeds with clearly articulated logic and pacing, Missa Solemnis<\/em> is more in the vein of his late string quartets. The writing is sometimes awkward for the string parts – much as with those late quartets – and there are surprising (even to modern ears) contrasts of tempo, dynamics, and timbre. I’ll spare the history lesson, but the essence of this work is that Beethoven spent time studying those masses that had come before, all the way back to the pre-Renaissance masters. So his harmonic language is imbued with more of those modal influences than other works of the time, and less classically structured.<\/p>\n

\"Tamara <\/a>
Tamara Wilson | Photo: Oregon Bach Festival <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Roxana <\/a>
Roxana Contantinescu | Photo: Oregon Bach Festival <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nicholas <\/a>
Nicholas Phan | Photo: Oregon Bach Festival <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ivan <\/a>
Ivan Garcia | Photo: Oregon Bach Festival <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Helmut <\/a>
Helmut Rilling | Photo: Oregon Bach Festival <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

It was a performance that was memorable for many reasons, some of them even musical. First of all, the choir was incredible, as it always is. Such a range of dynamics and colors! And their rhythm is truly remarkable – that is important, as you’ll discover later. Concertmaster Rahal Rilling was masterful in her leadership, and her solo in the Sanctus (depicting the descent of the Holy Spirit from heaven) was lovely (and played standing). The soloists were more of an uneven lot. The two female soloists were excellent, especially the soprano Tamara Wilson. The men seemed a bit overwhelmed by the task at hand, though each had fine singing voices. They may have been a bit distracted by the conducting assistance of Maestro Rilling, which was a bit more vague and mysterious than usual, though he is obviously still very much a commanding intellectual presence. This led to several moments of near collapse in the orchestra as the soloists, orchestra, and chorus all interpreted a tempo change differently, but the rhythmic security of the chorus, in particular, saved the day. These are quibbles from inside of a performance, however. I’m sure little of this was evident to the vast majority of the audience, who were highly appreciative of the evening’s performance.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew
Matthew Halls | Photo: Oregon Bach Festival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, rehearsals begin on the Opera Gala program, which features works by three composers celebrating major birth anniversaries this season: Verdi and Wagner (200 years), and Britten (100 years). Artistic director designate Matthew Halls conducts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been crossing works off of my musical bucket list this year at this summer’s festivals – an act from a Die Walk\u00fcre and big chunks for Verdi’s Otello in Astoria, and now Beethoven’s massive and enigmatic Missa Solemnis in Eugene at the Oregon Bach Festival. Whereas Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (written roughly contemporaneously to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[135,138,2],"tags":[501,2718,3391,2337],"class_list":["post-12742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soloists-recitals","category-summer-festivals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-beethoven","tag-helmuth-rilling","tag-missa-solemnis","tag-oregon-bach-festival"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-3jw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12732,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/26\/oregon-bach-festival-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":12742,"position":0},"title":"oregon bach festival preview","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We're just had our first rehearsal of the first week of the 2013 Oregon Bach Festival. It's a big year for the organization, with the founding conductor and artistic director Helmuth Rilling stepping into the role of artistic director emeritus with the ascendance of Matthew Halls as the new artistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "summer festivals"","block_context":{"text":"summer festivals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/summer-festivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Helmut Rilling","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/8894099714_657e769e60.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7616,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/20\/summer-activities\/","url_meta":{"origin":12742,"position":1},"title":"summer activities","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 20, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"This Monday marks the end of the Oregon Symphony's 2011-2012 season. It'll be my 16th season with the orchestra. Hard to believe! Time really does start accelerating at some point along the way, that is for certain! While there is time for R&R during the summer months, we don't earn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13973,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/01\/13\/days-of-future-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":12742,"position":2},"title":"days of future past","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We're almost halfway through January 2016, and I haven't managed to do a 'best of 2015' or 'looking forward to 2016' post. There aren't any compelling reasons why, aside from being pretty darn busy with musical activities for the past four months or so. So, without any further ado (I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7423,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/03\/15\/beethovens-unisons\/","url_meta":{"origin":12742,"position":3},"title":"beethoven’s unisons","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I was recently reading the wonderful exchange\u00a0(scroll down to the Dec. 6 entry) between pianist Jonathan Biss and Brentano Quartet violist Misha Amory about the similarities between the late piano sonatas and string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven when I came across one of those ideas that I'd never thought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7292,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/07\/2012-2013-season-announcement-roundup\/","url_meta":{"origin":12742,"position":4},"title":"2012-2013 season announcement roundup","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"February is the month in which most orchestras start their new subscription campaigns with their next-season announcements. I haven't really paid much attention to what's being programmed outside of my own orchestra, but I thought that it would be interesting to take a look at the seasons and see if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "programming"","block_context":{"text":"programming","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/programming-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7667,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/06\/16\/beethoven-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":12742,"position":5},"title":"beethoven love","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a brief post (unfinished) about Beethoven's Op. 127 string quartet, which I performed last night in the debut performance of the Bainbridge Quartet. It's really always an adventure to play any Beethoven quartet. It doesn't matter if it's an early, middle, or late period quartet. Beethoven demands the ultimate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}