Victoria Choral Society presents Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis The Victoria Choral Society, under the baton of Brian Wismath, will present Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 11, 2018, at the Farquhar Auditorium, located at the University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C.
=0D=0A=This performance will be sung in Latin and will feature over 120 singers, including soloists Ingrid Attrot (soprano), Sarah Fryer (mezzo), Thomas Glenn (tenor), and Gary Relyea (bass-baritone), and will be accompanied by orchestra with members of the Victoria Symphony.
=0D=0A=Victoria’s tie to Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is thanks to Prince Nikita Sergeyevich Galitzine (1912–2003), a Russian émigré who lived in Victoria with his beloved wife, Eve. Together, they helped establish Victoria’s St. Sophia Russian Orthodox Church, and donated the Fairfield building which is now its home. Long before the 1917 Revolution put an end to the Russian aristocracy, one of Prince Nikita’s ancestors—Prince Nikolai Borisovich Galitzine—was a benefactor of Beethoven, and paid in advance for three string quartets. This money allowed Beethoven to complete his Missa Solemnis, which premiered at St. Petersburg under the patronage of Galitzine and the Tsar.
=0D=0A=Beethoven’s Catholic “solemn mass” includes five typical mass movements: Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei; it ends with a prayer for peace. Beethoven left out the communion and Lord’s Prayer because he wrote Missa Solemnis for a particularly triumphant occasion: the elevation of his piano student, the Hapsburg nobleman Rudolph Rainier (1788–1831), Archduke of Austria, to the religious position of Archbishop of Olomouc (Olmütz). Eventually Beethoven dedicated 14 compositions to Rainier, who was his friend, pupil and patron. After the work’s premiere in 1824, Prince Galitzine wrote to the composer, “I have never heard anything so sublime. This whole work is a treasure of beauties; it can be said that your genius has anticipated the centuries.” Today, almost two centuries later, the VCS presents Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in a city that is linked across time with the masterpiece.
DTSTART:19691231 DTEND:19700101 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR