Petite Messe Solennelle by Gioachino Rossini

Loved and celebrated by an enthusiastic audience, condemned and misunderstood by contemporary critics, sometimes envied and admired by colleagues, but often attacked, despised and polemically commented on: Rossini's work and work still provide material for discussion and speculation today.As a lover of earthly pleasures, a great optimist and joker, Rossini ostensibly served the cliché of the “artist type”. His exuberant and entertaining music contributes to this perception. However, characteristics such as strong business acumen and a love of order do not quite fit into this picture, which suggests that the composer's personality was more complex than many contemporaries assumed. The composer was known for his witty bon mots, but whether all of his critics were aware of the frequent ambiguity of his statements remains to be seen. It is reasonable to assume that this can also be transferred to his music and that not every seemingly happy ending to an opera is free of thoughtful nuances.In just 20 years, the master of opera buffa created an incredible number of 39 operas. At that time, the term “Rossini fever” was coined, which says everything about the success of these works.At the height of his fame, Rossini unexpectedly withdrew in 1830 and completed only one composition in the following 27 years, the highly acclaimed “Stabat Mater” as the first of his two sacred works. In 1863 he surprised people with the second one: he wrote the “Petite Messe solennelle” for the inauguration of a private chapel and only orchestrated it with piano and harmonium for the small setting. Is this “poor little mass” “holy music (musique sacrée) or damned music (sacrée musique)?” he humorously asked God in an oft-quoted note in the manuscript marking the completion of the Mass.How serious Rossini was about the work becomes clear, among other things, from the following lines addressed to Franz Liszt from 1865: "... because I have put all my little musical knowledge into this compositionand because I have worked with true love for religion."Despite the deeply religious guiding principle, Rossini remained true to himself as a man of the theater. “My music is for everyone.”he is said to have written once. Whether in operaticArias or with echoes of waltzes and salon music, this becomes evident in the approximately 90-minute performance of the “Petite Messe solennelle”. The work is today considered one of the most beautiful and varied settings of the Latin church text.

Quelle: Verein Hinto.ch
Lizenz: CC BY-SA 4.0