Mass in C major opus 86

Album by Ludwig van Beethoven & Felicity Palmer & Helen Watts & Robert Tear & Christopher Keyte & Cambridge Choir of St John’s College & Academy of St Martin in the Fields & George Guest

Mass in C major, Op. 86 is a mass by Ludwig van Beethoven, completed in 1807. Musically it blends Classical liturgical choral traditions with Beethoven's symphonic orchestral language, employing contrapuntal textures, pronounced harmonic shifts and contrasts between intimate choral writing and fuller orchestral passages, and it represents a transitional stage in his sacred output between his earlier Classical models and his later, more expansive sacred works.