For Warriors of Light

Artists:

• Anna Shumarina, soprano
• Yuliia Hutsailiuk, mezzo-soprano
• Oleh Musii, tenor
• Volodymyr Vytiahlovskyi, bass
• Lviv National Academic Male Choir Capella Dudaryk
• Academic Chamber Orchestra Lviv Virtuosos
• Volodymyr Syvokhip, conductor

Programme:

• Ludwig van Beethoven. Mass in C major, Op. 86

“My dear Beethoven, in the name of all that is holy — what have you done here?” — this is how Prince Esterházy reportedly greeted the premiere of the work in 1807. The commission itself was conventional: to compose festive music for the name day of the princess, as Joseph Haydn had done for many years. But instead of the expected courtly pomp, Beethoven — who at that very time was working on his Fifth and “Pastoral” Symphonies — presented a score that shocked his contemporaries with its sincerity and radical newness.

The Mass in C major, Op. 86, is a work in which the composer deliberately abandons the operatic effects typical of the era. There are no virtuosic solo arias for singers to showcase their voices. Instead, Beethoven focuses on a deep, dramatic interpretation of the liturgical text. “I treated the text as few have ever done before,” he later wrote to his publishers, defending a work he described as “close to my heart.”

The listener is invited on a remarkable journey: from the humble opening of the Kyrie, where the basses enter a cappella, creating a mystical atmosphere, to the powerful choral exclamations of the Gloria. The Sanctus is particularly striking, where the prayer sounds only with the accompaniment of timpani — a bold decision that still feels fresh today. The solo voices do not dominate; instead, they engage in a continuous dialogue with the choir and orchestra, forming a single symphonic canvas.

Time has put everything in its place. What once seemed to the prince “strange and unsuccessful” is now recognized as a masterpiece that paved the way to the monumental Missa Solemnis. In the performance by the “Dudaryk” Capella and the “Lviv Virtuosos,” this music will sound exactly as its author intended — not as a ritual, but as a living, passionate conversation between humankind and God.