“Boston has long needed an improved music hall,” The New York Times declared on October 7, 1900. For most listeners at the time, the city’s premiere ensembles required a modern building with beautiful decorations and world-class acoustics fit to the grandeur of the great composers.
By all accounts, expectations were met when Symphony Hall opened to the public on October 15, 1900. The centerpiece of that evening’s Boston Symphony Orchestra concert, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, made for a fitting introduction for things to come in Boston’s new temple for music.
For 125 years, Symphony Hall and the BSO have just about delivered it all, from the shift from German to French repertoire to the focus on contemporary works spearheaded by longtime music director Serge Kouusevitzky and his successors. But through it all the orchestra and its many conductors have always returned to the music of Beethoven. Most recently, Andris Nelsons has led a complete cycle of the composer’s symphonies and piano concertos, with varying success. And the present moment―the 125th anniversary of Symphony Hall―called for even more. This past weekend, Nelsons led the orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a superb lineup of soloists in a performance of Missa Solemnis that should linger in memory for its sheer reverence, if not its polish.
The Missa Solemnis remains one of Beethoven’s most complicated and difficult works. Its dimensions, dramatic mood swings, and unusual scoring place demands on any who dare to perform it. The thick counterpoint, while reflecting the delicate sonic tapestries of Palestrina, easily obscure clarity of the text. And the vocal writing places such demands on the singers that some wonder if Beethoven held them in contempt. He consistently calls upon singers to soften their voices suddenly on sustained high notes. Even when performed successfully, the music states more than it sings, generating the emotional turmoil of penance, suffering, and eventual solace.
Thursday’s performance achieved most of those effects through broad tempos and hushed intensity. Nelsons allowed for the bold declamations to emerge naturally. The vocal soloists and Tanglewood Festival Chorus (prepared by Anthony Blake Clark) walked the wire between serenity and conviction. The “Kyrie,” shared between the quartet and choir, lifted like a personal prayer. The only things detracting from the musical solemnity were tentative attacks in the horns and woodwinds and the bottom-heavy balance of the choir.
But we nevertheless heard plenty of arresting moments. Nelsons’s sudden dynamic shifts enabled the “Christe eleison” to flower beautifully. The “Gloria” burst forth like sunlight through clouds. Yet, here too, wide contrasts in mood, like the smooth-toned “Et in terra pax” and soft graces of the “Gratias agimus tibi,” still propelled the energy forward.
Beethoven’s setting of the mass ordinary largely eschews celebration in favor of the emotional immediacy of desperately searching for resolution. Nelsons leaned into every nuance. The orchestra and singer rendered the Credo with palpable yearning. Strings played with enveloping warmth, supported by gentle chords from Symphony Hall’s organ. Subito pianos made the lines of the Visibilium Omnium flicker mysteriously.
Yet the energy never flagged. Jagged rhythms injected live-wire energy in the Deum verum de Deo, the music coursing like an electric shock. The Et incarnatus and Crucifixus complemented the other in a display of sorrow and grit fit for any passion setting.
The soloists conjured similar outward power and inward contemplation. Soprano Eleanor Lyons sang the Et vitam ventri saeculi with supple grace. Mezzo-soprano Wiebke Lehmkuhl supplied a dark counterweight to her featured moments. Her voice supported Lyons’s with the sensitivity of a comforting friend.
Tenor Klaus Florian Vogt rose easily over the larger ensemble in Gratias agimus tibi. His lines rang like bells against the sturdy oak of Franz-Josef Selig’s bass. The Agnus Dei, in Selig’s rendering, sounded with pleading gravitas, a sturdy force against the choir’s wispy accompanying phrases. Lehmkuhl and Vogt responded with a “peccata mundi” that grasped for any resolution.
That finale came in the Dona nobis pacem. Sung and played with conviction, it arrived as a final triumph of faith over suffering, assurance over doubt: a valediction 125 years in the making.
Aaron Keebaugh’s work has been featured in The Musical Times, Corymbus, The Classical Review, Early Music America, BBC Radio 3, and the Arts Fuse, for which he writes regularly about classical music. A musicologist, Aaron teaches at North Shore Community College in Danvers and Lynn.
I was there on Thursday, expecting to be wowed. It didn’t happen. Was I paying too much attention to the surtitles, and the text in general? At any rate, it just never became compelling. Perhaps the best way to put it is that it was dull.
Comment by Joe Whipple — October 19, 2025 at 10:29 pm
Good to have these several comments. Heard the Thursday performance – and always wonderful to hear this piece – rare enough! Major late Beethoven. Much good and exciting in the performance, although many times when the team was not all together – false starts by winds a few times, even vocal soloists, and chorus. Perhaps more rehearsal would have cleaned these up. But even with these, a moving performance of fascinating music. For us (lst balcony right), the concertmaster was wonderful and clear. Chorus well prepared and excellent but perhaps not so clean as under JohnOliver and others more recent.
Have heard several performances in Boston (and elsewhere), some with good choral conductors who hadn’t much clarity in the orchestra – Nelsons put it together better than those. Very interesting soloists – have heard Vogt many times (most recently both Siegfrieds in the Ring in Bayreuth) – always a strong singer. Here, thought he did a great job in modulating his huge voice well and kept it within the rest of the singers. Selig has been heard better in the Tanglewood Walkure, but still a lovely voice.
So, some faults, but mainly a splendid performance of an extraordinary piece of music.
Comment by Jim Perrin — October 17, 2025 at 9:18 pm
jimwm hit the nail on the head for me about concertmaster playing this year – it lacks character. and often I cannot hear it.
Did the guest choral conductor take a bow with the soloists and Andris?
Why are the supertitles in only one language? And not the language in which the singers are singing?
Comment by Cecilia — October 15, 2025 at 4:16 pm
After attending Thursday’s concert, I was very interested in reading how other people felt about it. I have read that this may be Beethoven’s best work, but I found it quite boring. I have attended many,many concerts and generally consider myself a good evaluator of classical performances. However, I can’t recall ever hearing this work before and I am not a big fan of choral/religious music. Maybe a devout Catholic would find this work very moving, but I can only rate it as a Beethoven musical composition. The text is very minimal and repetitious. There are multiple fugues that go on and on. There are a few instrumental passages that I found pleasant enough, but then we are back to tedious singing. Maybe one needs to hear this more than once to appreciate it. I honestly don’t know if the reason it didn’t thrill me was more due to my just not appreciating the composition or a poor performance by the Boston Symphony. Perhaps it is overrated. I was wide awake throughout the concert. There was a huge orchestra and chorus onstage, but it still felt like I was attending a church service. Also, I saw the organist on stage, but couldn’t pick out the organ’s sound during the concert. Maybe it’s just supposed to be an underpinning hum. The audience seemed to love it, but it did nothing for me. Too, unlike the attendance for last year’s Beethoven symphonic cycle, Symphony Hall wasn’t packed, even though the Boston Symphony was offering seats at a 30% discount. There were many empty seats right and left.
Comment by Bennett — October 15, 2025 at 1:27 am
I agree with jimwm’s impressions. I attended Saturday’s performance, sitting almost in the center near the front, and had very similar feelings.
I’ve heard the concertmaster solo several times before, and to me, his playing sounds much the same so far, whether it’s Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, or Beethoven. The violin section as a whole also sounded relatively flat in color and expression. From where I sat, Beethoven’s characteristic accents were almost entirely missing, and the bowing felt too light to give the music proper weight and urgency.
The chorus, on the other hand, was excellent—full of conviction and beautifully balanced.
Comment by Clara Goodwater — October 14, 2025 at 2:54 pm
From the comments, I would have liked to have been there Thursday night. jimwm was there on Friday as well and we both seem to have felt a lackluster performance. I look forward to hearing the repeat on CRB of the Saturday night one. Maybe we need a reviewer for each performance of a large chorale piece!
Comment by RSB — October 14, 2025 at 1:29 pm
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis on Thur evening was Glorious
Comment by Marcia L Jackson — October 14, 2025 at 10:16 am
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is my favorite piece of music. I’ve heard live performances in the past by Norrington and Levine with the BSO and David Hoose with the Cantata Singers. I first heard this work on the Bernstein/NYPhil recording and that is the performance that imprinted itself on me, but I’ve also greatly enjoyed other recordings by conductors who have taken quite a different approach to the music.
I attended Friday’s performance sitting in row 1 center of the first balcony. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to hear this music live so I’m awfully glad to have had this opportunity. I enjoyed it, but I came away with some mixed feelings about the performance. I enjoyed all the soloists, but Klaus Florian Vogt seemed to me somewhat underpowered. Underpowered would be a good description of Nathan Cole’s performance as well. Or perhaps timid would be a better word. Not only was he sometimes difficult to hear, but he didn’t move me at all. This is music that has never, in any other performance I’ve heard, failed to move my soul, but Friday it didn’t touch me at all. I had similar feelings about his playing a couple of weeks ago in “Ein Heldenleben”. His playing may be elegant and precise, but it lacks character. When listening to that solo in the Beethoven you should envision the music rising up above the orchestra and into heaven. This didn’t do that.
I was very pleased with the performance of the chorus. That was the one thing I was concerned about going into the concert considering the fact that they were working with an auditioning choral director, but they seemed to be in fine shape.
Comment by jimwm — October 13, 2025 at 10:43 pm
One additional comment: Having heard Missa Solemnis performed live in Symphony Hall by Seiji Ozawa, Roger Norrington (ugh), Levine, and Nelsons, it seemed to me that hands down Andris Nelsons’s performance was easily the best and frankly on another level altogether as compared to any of the rest of them.
Well done, Maestro Nelsons!!
Comment by Mogulmeister — October 13, 2025 at 9:08 pm
Interesting comment RSB. We were at Thursday night’s concert, and I thoroughly agree with Mr. Keebaugh’s review and if anything I liked the performance even more than he did. It was a tremendous performance from beginning to end, with wonderful execution by everyone. Andris Nelsons, the orchestra, the Tanglewood Chorus, and the soloists did incredible justice to Beethoven. I thought it was a great performance and another highlight of Andris Nelsons’ tenure in Boston.
Something must have happened Friday afternoon because what you heard then is definitely not what we heard Thursday night. As for hearing Nathan Cole, our seats are right in the middle of the hall on the floor, so I can’t speak to how it sounded in the balconies. Where we were, his solos were wonderful.
For me however the highlight of the evening was listening to Klaus Florian Vogt. WOW!!! What a voice! I’m astonished that at his age (mid-50s) he still sounds fresh and wonderful, beyond criticism. His voice soars and is gorgeous, and for sure it’s the voice of a heldentenor. I have previously heard him in Tannhauser although not live. But hearing him live in Symphony Hall was incredibly special. I’ve since read online that he tends to divide audiences, with some loving him and others not liking certain aspects of his voice. I was in awe. The soloists as a group were incredibly well-attuned to one another and truly sang as a quartet, which is not always the case. One can quibble at the margins about certain qualities of each of the other soloists, but in any absolute sense, they were collectively fantastic and I’d especially welcome hearing the soprano Eleanor Lyons and Klaus Florian Vogt again in Symphony Hall. The bass Franz-Josef Selig seemed at times unwilling to fully project, as if he was pulling his punches. He has a wonderful voice but he seemed to be holding back in fear of standing out or overwhelming his colleagues.
Comment by Mogulmeister — October 13, 2025 at 9:05 pm
The Missa I heard on Friday afternoon must not have been the Missa of Thursday you reviewed. Attacks were sloppy,, orchestra and soloists were not always in synch, Cole’s solos once may been elegant, but not in the second balcony: once again, often hard to hear. Others near me agreed. He needs to open up the voice of his Strad to us in the best seats for music in the house.
As an aside, I noted in the picture of the opening night 1900 program that Kneisel was featured as soloist in the performance. Could he have been playing the Kneisel that was just gifted to the MFA?
Comment by RSB — October 13, 2025 at 8:08 pm