Later, he willingly composed a new finale for his String Quartet in B flat major, Opus 130, again allowing the fugal finale to be published as a separate work (The Grosse Fuge). The substitute finale could not be more different in character, although bearing thematic relationships with the original fugal finale. Nowadays, both versions of the B flat Quartet are played in fairly equal measure. Beethoven’s works seem to us to be so definitive and fixed in stone that it is fascinating to be aware of the doubts that continued to plague him about endings. Beethoven did write about having two symphonies in mind whilst embarking on the Ninth Symphony and indeed his earlier pattern had been to produce Symphonie pairs, thus the Eroica and No. 4, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and then the Seventh and Eighth, although there is no evidence that he did this in a systematic männer. This time he did not produce a second symphony, but perhaps we can view the Missa Solemnis as an appropriate ‘twin’. With its dedication ‘From the heart, may it go to the heart’, it is a worthy twin to the Ninth Symphony. As a celebration of his religious faith, it is as much about doubt as it is about faith and how both can live together. And again, it is about endings for surely the rather ambivalent close of the Missa Solemnis is the other side of the same coin when matched with the unbridled optimism of the final moments of the Ninth Symphony. Symphonie in concept, it is perhaps more appropriate to refer to the Missa Solemnis as his ‘choral symphony’. 1. Allegro, ma non troppo, un poco maestoso The craggy main theme of the opening movement had been notated in outline in the early Sketches for the symphony and the finished product bears witness to Schlösser’s earlier quoted account of his compositional method; one can imagine the music resounding, roaring and raging in Beethoven’s head until it reached its final form, emerging from the primeval void with the mists gradually separating to reveal the great mountain. This was to be a model for later symphonists, especially Anton Bruckner. Perhaps another factor that we might take for granted in this opening movement is the total mastery over the use of his orchestral forces, with the subtle blend of instrumentation throughout - there is just one brief moment when we think that we might hear a prolonged horn solo at the start of the coda, but this idea is quickly shared with the rest of the orchestra. With its Handelian dotted rhythms and intricate scoring the music both looks back to Baroque models and forward to the music-dramas of the future. The coda’s concluding crescendo with tremolo strings rising in octaves from pianissimo to fortissimo before the final bare Statement of the main theme brings this tragic movement to a shattering full stop. 2. Molto vivace For the first time in one of his symphonies, comes the Scherzo-type movement (always the third movement in his earlier symphonies), although
