A Concert on the occasion of the XX. World Youth Day Beethoven himself dubbed this mass his “greatest and most successful work” and referred to it as an “oratorio”. Although this was probably primarily a tactic to increase the work’s popularity for the understandable purpose of maximising the income to be generated from its performance and publication, the maestro was right in terms of pointing out the exceeding nature of his work. With his Missa solemnis the composer had broken with all conventions for the composition of a mass, creating a work that went well beyond the normal framework of the liturgy. His treatment and interpretation of the text creates the impression of a coherent set of events, and as such the work distances itself from normal liturgical procedures, becoming instead the main focus of interest. In his introduction to the performance given in the Cologne Cathedral as part of the World Youth Day 2005 Pope Benedict XVI states: “The Missa solemnis bears overwhelming witness to an unceasing search for belief that refuses to turn its back on God.” Conductor Sir Gilbert Levine has a special link with the Catholic church and the Pope, having conducted the legendary holocaust memorial concert for Pope John Paul II and having subsequently supported him in his untiring efforts to achieve better relations between the world’s religions. In return for his efforts he was appointed Knight Commander of St. Gregory. There can therefore have been no individual better qualified to conduct the concert that ushered in World Youth Day.