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The Liszt centenary was celebrated everywhere with elaborate festivities, perhaps most notably at Budapest where the Missa Solemnis was sung in the great cathedral that alone would have been sufficient glory for the composer. At Weimar, which, during his lifetime, Liszt made a sort of musical Mecca, they gave a performance of his deeply charming oratorio Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth.
However Utopian that hope may sound now, let us think of it as a symptom of new directions of thought, and let us hope that Don Perosi may be one of those who will bring into music that divine peace, that peace which Beethoven craved for in despair at the end of his Missa Solemnis, that joy that he sang about but never knew.
This good custom has disappeared and with it the opportunity to give the public such delightful works as the Seven Words, and so many other things which harmonize with the character of the day. At one of these Sacred Concerts, Pasdeloup presented on the same evening the Credo from Liszt's Missa Solemnis and the one from Cherubini's Messe du Sacre.
To many readers Marx's discussions of Beethoven's last works will be found of interest and value, though written in that turgid, vague, confused style "words, words, words" which the Germans denominate by the expressive term, Geschtwaetz. This is especially the case with his essays upon the great "Missa Solemnis," and the "Ninth Symphony."
I received in reply a letter saying 'that the publishers had not yet decided to issue the Ninth Symphony for the piano, but that they would gladly keep my laborious work, and offered me remuneration in the shape of the score of the great Missa Solemnis in D, which I accepted with great pleasure.
And yet how can we tell? Perhaps Beethoven, too, suffered similar anguish in the sad days that followed 1815, before the last sonatas, the Missa Solemnis, and the Ninth Symphony had awaked to life in him. In March, 1895, Wolf lived once more, and in three months had written the piano score of Corregidor. For many years he had been attracted towards the stage, and especially towards light opera.
So, despite Liszt's superior refinement, and putting aside exceptional achievements, in this branch of art Gounod was the victor. As there is an odor di femina there is a parfum d'église, well known to Catholics. Gounod's oratorios are impregnated with this, while it is found in Christus very, very feebly, if at all. The Missa Solemnis must be examined to find it to any extent in Liszt's work.
Applaud those loud final movements which are written, as Mozart said, 'for long ears. Applaud as much as you like, then: your braying is anticipated: it is part of the concert. But after the Missa Solemnis of Beethoven!... Poor wretches!... It is the Last Judgment. You have just seen the maddening Gloria pass like a storm over the ocean.
Angelica Henn, one of Kalliwoda's best pupils, is credited with a "Missa Solemnis," also an opera, "The Rose of Lebanon," and some songs and instrumental works. Anna Pessiak-Schmerling, born in Vienna, was for many years teacher of singing at the conservatory there, and won more than a local reputation through the performance of her masses.
With what interest, for instance, do we read Schindler's account of how Beethoven composed his Missa Solemnis of the master's absolute detachment from the terrestrial world during the time he was engaged on this work; of his singing, shouting, and stamping, when he was in the act of giving birth to the fugue of the Credo!
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