Closing concert

Beethoven's Missa solemnis

with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

200 years since the death of Beethoven, the 2027 edition of the Bergen International Festival ends with the composer’s masterpiece and his perennial plea for peace in a time of war: the Missa solemnis. Hundreds of musicians gather for the work Beethoven deemed his own greatest achievement. 

Like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the Missa solemnis is a colossal piece for four vocal soloists, orchestra and choir – so big that Beethoven required specially-enlarged sheets of paper to write it down in 1824. The result is a deeply moving journey through music of all moods and textures in which Beethoven captures his own vision of the majesty of God in music.  

Conductor Thomas Guggeis leads four world-class soloists, local choirs and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in a work known for its intensity, complexity and brilliance whose combination of divine majesty and human love could only have come from Beethoven.

Collage: Ludwig van Beethoven (painting by Joseph Karl Stieler), notes from Missa solemnis, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (photo: Lars Svenkerud)

Supported by

Contributors

• Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

• Thomas Guggeis conductor

• Christina Nilsson soprano

• Anna Kissjudit mezzo soprano

• Siyabonga Maqungo tenor

• Arrtu Kataja baritone

• Bergen Philharmonic Choir

• Edvard Grieg Kor

• Collegium Musicum's choir

• Håkon Matti Skrede chorus master

Music

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
  Missa solemnis, op. 123
  1. Kyrie
  2. Gloria
  3. Credo
  4. Sanctus
  5. Agnus Dei

A collaboration between

Bergen International Festival and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra