We often think of Memorial Day weekend as an opportunity to relax at the beach, have barbecues and parties while spending time with friends and family. But it’s always good to remember that the reason we celebrate Memorial Day is to honor the men and women who have sacrificed their lives in the military. Perhaps there’s no more appropriate program of music for this weekend than the LA Philharmonic’s Masses by Haydn & Beethoven. There are performances on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Gustavo Dudamel is leading the LA Phil and the LA Master Chorale in these two performances. The program opens with Beethoven’s Mass in C major. This work is the first of two masses he composed, though Beethoven meant for these two works to be treated individually and not for the Mass in C Major to be deemed a warm-up for the more popular Missa Solemnis.
This Mass had its world premiere in 1807, the same year in which it was completed. It was commissioned by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy who had previously relied on Haydn to write masses for his family. Haydn’s failing health made it impossible for him to write another mass for the Prince (Haydn died two years after this work’s premiere.)
Of his Mass Beethoven said, “I do not speak gladly of my Mass, or of myself, but I do believe that I have treated the text in a manner in which only few have treated it.”
This is a quieter and more contemplative Mass than the composer’s Missa Solemnis. The Prince was not a fan of the work and the Mass in C Major remains one of the composer’s least-performed works.
The second half of the concert finds Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Missa in Angustiss in d Minor being performed. Haydn did not intend for his Mass to be associated with Lord Nelson, who famously defeated Napoleon and his troops in the Battle of the Nile while the composer was finishing work on his “Mass in Anguish.”
It is speculated that Haydn and the concertgoers in attendance at the work’s premiere in 1798 heard the Missa in Angustiss at the same time word of Napoleon’s defeat spread. The timing made the two inextricably linked. The moniker Lord Nelson was officially attached to the work two years later when Lord Nelson called on the Esterházy Court in Vienna.
The work begins rather darkly and then goes through sections of great danger before reaching its triumphant ending. This is Haydn’s largest Mass and the only one set in a minor key. There are no woodwinds in this piece. Prince Esterházy let all woodwind players leave at the time to fight in the war.
Joining the LA Philharmonic for these two performances are: Ailyn Pérez, soprano; Anna Larsson, mezzo-soprano; David Portillo, tenor and Matthias Goerne, bass-baritone. Grant Gershon is the Artistic Director of the LA Master Chorale.
For tickets for Saturday go here.
For tickets for Sunday go here.
Painting of Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler (1820). Painting of Haydn by Thomas Hardy (1791)
