Concert Announcement
Sunday, December 5, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Hector Berlioz: Messe Solenelle
Susan Montgomery, soprano
Christopher Campbell, tenor
Eric Castro, bass
Brentwood-Palisades Chorale, Susan S. Rosenstein, Director
Joel B. Lish, Conductor
Admission is free; open seating
Palisades Methodist Church
801 Via de la Paz
Pacific Palisades, California
About the work
Berlioz's Messe Solonelle was written in 1824. It was first performed in 1825 and 1827, then lost. For a period of 160 years, only the Resurrexit movement was known. Then, while searching for another work, the choral director Frans Moors found the score of the Messe Solonelle in the church of St. Charles Borromeus in Antwerp. New parts were prepared from the manuscript, and the work was first performed in modern times in the St. Petri Church in Bremen, Germany, on October 3, 1993. The world premiere recording of the work followed shortly thereafter on October 12, 1993 at Westminster Cathedral in London. These performances were by the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestra Revolutionaire et Romantique under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner.
Themes from this Mass was used by Berlioz for later works such as the Symphonie Fantastique and the Roman Carnival Overture.