Mass in C major, Op. 86

Kyrie. The chorus enters quietly, almost conversationally, and the four soloists step out of the choral sound rather than standing apart from it. The middle section ("Christe eleison") turns more urgent before the opening calm returns.

Gloria. A burst of energy: fast, loud, the chorus shouting the word "Gloria" upward. The music then drops to a hush for the prayer sections, and the movement ends with a fugue, one voice group starting a tune and the others chasing it, closing with the word "Gloria" flung back one last time.

Credo. The longest movement, built as a series of contrasts. Listen for the slowing and darkening at the words about the crucifixion, then the sudden brightening at the resurrection. Another chase-fugue drives the ending.

Sanctus. Soft, slow, and low at first, then the "Osanna" lifts everything into quick motion. The "Benedictus" that follows is the tenderest music in the piece, soloists trading long lines over gently rocking strings.

Agnus Dei. Dark and pleading, then a shift into the light for "Dona nobis pacem" (grant us peace). At the very end Beethoven quietly recalls the opening of the Kyrie, closing the circle so the work ends where it began.

Beethoven wrote the Mass in C in 1807 on a commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, who marked his wife's name day each year with a new Mass. The post had been Haydn's, and Haydn's six late Masses were the yardstick. Beethoven finished late, rehearsed under pressure, and the premiere at Eisenstadt in September 1807 did not please his patron. The composer took the score away and eventually published it in 1812 with a dedication elsewhere. For most of the next two centuries it lived in the shadow of the enormous Missa solemnis Beethoven wrote a decade later, and it is still the less familiar of his two Masses. Choruses and orchestras have returned to it steadily in recent decades, drawn by its modest scale, its unusual gentleness, and the quiet stroke at the end, when the music of the opening returns to close the work.