1820 work discovered alongside original sketches for Missa
Solemnis Just a few days after an early forgotten piano sonata
by Beethoven received its premiere in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw,
a lost hymn, written by the composer some 192 years ago, was
preformed for perhaps the first time on October 25 at the
University of Manchester. Professor Barry Cooper discovered the
work, composed around 1820, alongside original sketches for the
Missa Solemnis in Berlin. An organ harmonisation of Gregorian
hymn chant ‘Pange lingua’, the work, like the Missa Solemnis,
was likely composed for Archduke Rudolf of Austria. It is
unclear, however, whether the hymn was ever publically
performed. According to Cooper, the work demonstrates
Beethoven’s first use of his slow chorale style, best exhibited
in his String Quartet No 15, Op 132, composed in 1825. ‘This
piece is surprising because it doesn’t sound like Beethoven. If
I hadn’t seen it in his own handwriting, complete with
corrections, I wouldn’t have believed it was by him,' s