Sacred music played an important role in Schubert's life. He came from a religious family and was educated in seminary. The sixth mass in E flat major D.950 was composed in the year of his death: 1828. Schubert himself no longer conducted the premiere, as did his brother Ferdinand in 1829. The work was strongly criticized after the first performance. There was talk about the sombre tone of the piece,
… which would make it look more like a requiem and the orchestration (with many brass instruments) would also be too heavy. Others later argued that this Mass is a perfect union of objective (compositional technique) and subjective (religious intention) elements. Despite all the comments and remarks, it remains a wonderful mass with beautiful fugal parts. Elements from the Baroque rhetoric are also included. The "Messe nr.6 Es dur, D.950" is performed by soprano Soile Isokoski, tenor Christoph Prégardien, bass Cornelius Hauptmann, Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie conducted by Frieder Bernius. (LW) _more
