Today’s choice was described by its composer as “the last of my péchés de vieillesse” (sins of old age)!
By 1864 Rossini had ceased composing opera thirty years earlier, and composed this ‘little solemn mass’ for two pianos, harmonium, and a choir of twelve singers, which included the soloists. It was first performed in the Parisian home of Count Alexis Pillet-Will – we think he’d commissioned it for his wife. An orchestrated version came later.
It is a fairly long setting (this was once a set work for the IB Music specification), but sets the words of the mass dramatically, almost as though it were operatic – particularly the tenor solo Domine Deus. The Gloria finishes with an epic fugue. My personal favourites are the oom-cha-oom-cha opening with suspensions in the Kyrie (with a quasi-Palestrina Christe sandwiched in), and the emotional solo in the Agnus Dei when it finally modulates to the major.
On the final page, Rossini wrote:
Dear Lord, here it is finished, this poor little mass. Have I just written sacred music, or rather, sacrilegious music? I was born for opera buffa, as you well know. Not much technique, a little bit of heart, that’s all. Blessings to you and grant me Paradise.
What do you think? Is this a heartfelt setting of the mass, or is it opera buffa in disguise? Perhaps it’s both?
Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (1864)
The Listening Project Blog 