Performance prevented by late arrival of music
This corrected copy of the first two movements (Kyrie and Gloria) of the Missa solemnis was completed in the second half of 1823. Beethoven sent this partial copy to his former pupil Ferdinand Ries in Bonn on 9 April 1825. The mass was to be performed in Aachen that year at the Lower Rhine Music Festival, to which Ries was very committed. In his letter to Ries of 9 April 1825, Beethoven wrote: "A Kyrie and a Gloria, two of my most excellent compositions, (...) are also on their way to you" (from the translation by Emily Anderson, 1961). In the end, however, the mass was not performed: the late arrival of the package meant that the work could not be adequately rehearsed before the performance. (J.R.)
