Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives Buy:SACD Hybrid ' — Sir Simon Rattle

' — Sir Simon Rattle

chorus and soloists

Soloists Elsa Dreisig

With orchestra

Written in 1970–71 when the composer’s health was declining

Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives Buy:SACD Hybrid ' — Sir Simon RattleComposed in 1803, while Beethoven was also writing the Eroica Symphony, Christ on the Mount of Olives is the composer's only oratorio, and combines the emotive force of his later Missa Solemnis with the theatre of a Bach Passion. With orchestra, chorus and soloists, it tells the story of Jesus prayer and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and reflects the emotional pressure Beethoven was under at the time he composed the work. This recording by Sir