»Geniestreich«

Berlioz's »Messe solennelle« was rediscovered more than 160 years after it was written. This early work by the 21-year-old marks the beginning of an impressive sacred work that runs like a thread through the oeuvre of the free-thinking Berlioz.

It was considered a musicological sensation when the manuscript of Hector Berlioz's monumental »Messe solennelle«  was discovered on the organ stage of a church in Antwerp in 1991, as the composer himself had claimed to have destroyed this early work from 1824. The dramaturgical design of this choral-symphonic rarity reveals the early mastery of the 21-year-old Frenchman and already hints at the development of his revolutionary style.