Hans Pfitzner
Hans Pfitzner

The great musician Palestrina is pressured from two sides: his young pupil finds his compositions old-fashioned, music history seems to have passed him by – and the grand Cardinal Borromeo attempts to force him to write a mass, in which his art will reunite Christianity in the throes of a radical schism. Palestrina tries to elude all these demands, but for all of this: his bold venture proves a grand success. In a single night, he composes a truly celestial mass. The music seems to have emanated from another world. And Pfitzner’s “Palestrina” score - given its world première in Munich in 1917 - provides one final opportunity for the mystery of the autonomous, brilliant artist to come to life in the grand, unbroken romantic tradition of the 19th century.

In German with German surtitles