Missa humanis (10:30)

"The Missa humanis for chorus and chamber orchestra was inspired by a 1999 hearing of a performance of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. The inspiration was, apparently, a negative one, urging Amrhein to compose the antithesis to Beethoven’s Mahlerian masterpiece. Her setting of the Ordinary of the Mass takes a mere 10 and a half minutes. With the exception of the Kyrie, repetitions of the text are avoided. The choral writing projects a feeling of monody despite its occasional forays into counterpoint. The result is an almost primordial take on a timeless text, and it reminds this listener of Stravinsky’s (another master of concision) Mass setting of 1948." - William Zagorski, Fanfare Magazine