Beethoven’s Last Mass
This score has become a sign of contradiction.
Above: the grave of Ludwig van Beethoven at Vienna Central Cemetery. One of his final works was his Missa Solemnis. Two hundred years ago, on April 6, 1824, for the first time in St. Petersburg, the Missa Solemnis in D major for four solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, Op. 123 by Ludwig van Beethoven (†1827) was performed, “one of the greatest examples of will to power achieved by art” (P.