Messe C-Dur Opus 86

Features of the Barenreiter Urtext edition of Beethoven's Mass In C Major:

• Score with realisation of the Organ part
• Bilingual Foreword (Eng/Ger) and Critical Commentary (Eng)
• Straight-forward Piano reduction
• Full score and performance material (BA9039) and Vocal score (BA9039-90) available for sale

Amongst Beethoven’s sacred works are two settings of the Mass. The Mass In C Major was completed and premiered in 1807 and has been unjustly described as a preliminary step towards the great Missa solemnis. Yet it is a self-contained and, for its time, distinctly modernpiece of sacred music.

Beethoven specialist Barry Cooper has drawn on a rich body of sources to suggests practical solutions to the work’s musical and interpretative problems. His in-depth study of the sources convinced him to include a fully realised Organ part in the score, just as Beethoven envisioned it for the first printed edition. As stated in the original sources, the parts for the soloists and choir are notated on joint staves to demonstrate that the soloists are also to sing the choral passages.

This Barenreiter Urtext edition is rounded off with a foreword on the work’s genesis and a detailed critical commentary.