I should (somewhat belatedly) thank Walter Meyer for his eloquent
comments on the Missa Solemnis - that brought back some vivid memories
of the one time I heard it.  Incidentally, that was the recording by John
Eliot Gardiner - probably not a wise first choice.  As I listened, I had at
least a vague sense that here the age-old Catholic liturgy, Beethoven's own
craggily humanistic theology and the historical post-revolutionary context
were somehow all being forced together into a whole that was uneasy and
problematic, but incredibly charged and great in its strangeness.  I
especially remember the particular emphasis on Christ's humanity in the
Credo (et homo factus est) and the Agnus Dei you mentioned, with that weird
stammered pleading recitative and (I think) gunfire in the background - a
terrifying vision of Judgment day, but also seeming to me to hark back to
the chaos and bloodshed of the Napoleonic wars.

It's strange that I have far less recollection of the 'Benedictus' or
the final 'Dona nobis' - all I have is a vague, and more theoretical than
actual idea that they were 'beautiful'.  My guess is that that's Gardiner's
fault, whom I tend to find very cool and uninvolving in more lyrical music.
You've certainly made me want to listen to the Mass again - now I just need
to find a recording that can meet the demands of this work.  I'm especially
suspicious of Gardiner's Beethoven since I heard his mauling of the 9th
symphony.

Felix Delbruck
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