Beethoven Missa Solemnis Sir Colin Davis

Sir Colin Davis tackles a work whose uncompromising nature makes it as great a challenge as anything in the choral repertoire whether you regard it as a statement of the composers belief in the spiritual potential of man or his faith in a supreme being A musician must make affirmations says Davis If a musician cannot believe in music as a universal ideal what is he left with We may be encircled by gloom but music gives us a chance to throw what Meredith calls that faint thin line upon the shore Beethoven is a man at war with himself but a man who is determined to win