Release Date: 01 January 2004
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313206025
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BEETHOVEN
Description
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)Missa Solemnis, Op. 123In 1792 Beethoven left his native city of Bonn to seek hisfortune in the imperial capital, Vienna. Five years before he had been sent toVienna by his patron, the Archbishop of Cologne, for lessons with Mozart, butthe illness of his mother had forced his immediate return home. Before long,after his mother's death, he had been obliged to take charge of the welfare ofhis younger brothers, a task that his father was not competent to discharge.As a boy Beethoven had had an erratic musical training throughhis father, a singer in the archiepiscopal musical establishment, latercontinued on sounder lines. In 1792 he was to take lessons from Haydn, fromwhom he later claimed to have learned nothing, followed by subsequent study ofcounterpoint with Albrechtsberger and Italian word-setting with Salieri. Armedwith introductions to members of the nobility in Vienna, he soon establishedhimself as a keyboard virtuoso, skilled both as a performer and as an adept inthe necessary art of improvisation. In the course of time he was to be widelyrecognised as a figure of remarkable genius and originality. At the same timehe became known as a social eccentric, no respecter of persons, hiseccentricity all the greater because of increasing deafness, a failing that becameevident by the turn of the century. With the patient encouragement of patrons,he directed his attentions largely to composition, developing the inheritedclassical tradition of Haydn and Mozart and extending its bounds in a way thatpresented both an example and a challenge to the composers who came after him.Among Beethoven's patrons and supporters in Vienna wasArchduke Rudolph Johann Joseph Rainer, the youngest son of the Emperor LeopoldII. Born in Florence in 1788, he had enjoyed a relatively enlightened childhoodthere, while his father was Grand Duke of Tuscany. The death of the EmperorJoseph II in 1790 brought the family back to Vienna. His father succeeded hisbrother as Emperor, but died in 1792, leaving the succession to the Archduke'sbrother Franz. Rudolph's inclinations were towards the arts, as his healthprevented indulgence in more martial activities, and, like Beethoven's earlierpatron in Bonn, towards the church. The relationship with Beethoven began in1803, when the composer became Rudolph's teacher, providing instruction andencouragement in composition, theory and the piano. These lessons continued,intermittently, over the following years, and Archduke Rudolph did much tosecure an income for Beethoven in the financial arrangements made in thedifficult year of 1809 to ensure that he remained in Vienna. Beethovendedicated a number of his finest works to the Archduke, including his fourthand fifth piano concertos, the so-called Archduke Trio, the Grosse Fuge, andthe Hammerklavier Sonata. In 1805 Rudolph had been named as co-adjutor bishop ofOlm??tz (Olomouc) and in 1819 he was appointed Archbishop and Cardinal. It wasto mark this occasion that
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Nzso:Halasz
Marin Alsop
Malmo So:Engeset
