1 LP - 6.43120 AZ - (p) 1985 1 CD - 8.43120 ZK - (p) 1985

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Missa in c, KV 427 (417a) 55' 47" Mit Ergänzungen * (bzw. Korrekturen der Chorstimmen **) von Franz Beyer - Kyrie: Andante moderato (Chor, Sopran Solo) 6' 23" A1 - Gloria: Allegro vivace (Chor) 2' 26" A2 - Laudamus te: Allegro aperto (Sopran Solo) 4' 55" A3 - Gratias: Adagio (Chor) 1' 01" A4 - Domine: Allegro moderato (Sopran I, Sopran II Soli) 2' 49" A5 - Qui tollis: Largo (Chor I, Chor II) 6' 04" A6 - Quoniam: Allegro (Sopran I, Sopran II, Tenor Soli) 4' 29" A7 - Jesu Christe: Adagio (Chor) 0' 35" B1 - Cum Sancto Spiritu: (alla breve) (Chor) 4' 22" B2 - Credo: Allegro maestoso (Chor) * 3' 29" B3 - Et incarnatus est: (Andante) (Sopran Solo) * 8' 15" B4 - Sanctus: Largo (Chor I, Chor II) ** 1' 53" B5 - Hosanna: Allegro comodo (Chor I, Chor II) ** 2' 08" B6 - Benedictus: Allegro comodo (Sopran I, Sopran II, Tenor, Baß Soli) 6' 33" B7   Krisztina Láki, Sopran Zsuzsanna Dénes, Sopran Kurt Equiluz, Tenor Robert Holl, Baß Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor / Walter Hagen-Groll, Leitung CONCENTUS MUSICUS WIEN (mit Originalinstrumenten) Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leitung   Luogo e data di registrazione Grosses Musikvereinssaal, Vienna (Austria) - 1984 Registrazione live / studio studio Producer / Engineer - Prima Edizione CD Teldec - 8.43120 ZK - (1 cd) - 55' 47" - (p) 1985 - DDD Prima Edizione LP Teldec - 6.43120 AZ - (1 lp) - 55' 47" - (p) 1985 - Digital Notes The Masses and Vespers which Mozart wrote while he was at Salzburg can best be described as his daily bread. Splendid though some of them were, his church music of that period kept, by and large, lo well-trodden paths. By comparison with these works the incomplete Mass in C minor K. 427 is a class of its own. Mozart’s vow to compose a Mass after his marriage to Constanze Weber and to perform it when he presented his bride in Salzburg was no mere lip service. When, at the end of July 1783, he and his young wife embarked on their oft-postponed journey to Salzburg, he probably carried the score up to and including the “Et incarnatus est” in his luggage. he may even have been working on the “Sanctus” and “Benedictus“ in Salzburg, possibly using sketches made in Vienna, since, according to the introduction to the Mass K. 427 in the New Mozart Edition by Monika Holl and Karl-Heinz Köhler and contrary to statements in older books on Mozart, the Mass may well not have had its first performance until October. At least there is mention in the diary of Mozart’s sister Nannerl ofa rehearsal for a Mass on 23rd October in the “capelHaus” and finally of a performance on the Sunday following, the 26th October, in the Benedictine collegiate church of St. Peter, with “all the court music" taking part. There is good reason to assume that this was the Mass in C minor, K. 427. Since St. Peter’s (which, incidentally, did not come under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Salzburg, Mozart’s former employer) had at its disposal no more than some ten singers and as many instrumentalists, both choir and orchestra had to be augmented by “outside” forces. According to Nannerl’s report, her sister-inlaw Constanze sang both soprano solo parts at this first performance. Close friends of the family, one of two sopranos at the Court (either Francesco Ceccarelli or Michelangelo Bologna) and the tenor Giuseppe Tomaselli probably took the other two solo parts. The first performance in Salzburg is shrouded in mystery. It has still not been established whether Mozart filled in the missing parts in the “Credo” and the whole “Agnus Dei” by making use of appropriate movements from earlier masses. Not even the new Mozart research has been able to shed any light on this problem. But it is certainly worth noting that (in view of the conditions in Salzburg) Mozart dispensed with clarinets, even though he used a large orchestra in which three trombones, who played colla parte with the chorus altos, tenors and basses as was then customary in Salzburg, were occasionelly given independent parts to play as well. With its comparatively rich scoring, its unusual dimensions and its expressive breadth and depth, the Mass in C minor is in an entirely different category from Mozart’s other masses. In the “Credo” and “Gratias” the customary four-part chorus is expanded to five parts, and the “Qui tollis" is even laid out as an eight-part double chorus. For the “Cum sancto spiritu” Mozart wrote a mighty fugue on a powerful subject in rising fourths; the “Hosanna”is another fugue, this time richly figured. In the early 1780s other composers such as Joseph and Michael Haydn also tended to revert to old contrapuntal techniques. But without Mozart’s interest in and concern for the works of Johann Sebastian Bach these fugues, and indeed the double chorus in “Qui tollis” with its austere harmonies, or the ,,Kyrie” which is remarkably severe, compared with earlier masses, would probably never have been written. It was in that year 1782 that Mozart regularly attended the “academies” which Baron Gottfried van Swieten held in his apartments in the Imperial Library on Sunday mornings and where, if Mozart's letter to his father of 10th April 1782 is to be believed, nothing was performed other than Bach and Handel. Once again Mozart’s creativity had absorbed new stylistic influences. Nonetheless, it must be noted that in addition to the strictly contrapuntal choruses there are also movements in this Mass such as the “Laudamus te”, an Italianate operatic aria with ostentatiously sparkling coloratura. Finally, mention should be made of the fact that Mozart remembered this Mass when, in March 1785, he wrote his cantata “Davidde penitente” for a concert of the Wiener Tonkünstler-Societät at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Probably no less a librettist than Lorenzo da Ponte collaborated with Mozart since, in addition to two entirely new arias, new ltalian texts were needed in place of the “Kyrie” and “Gloria” of the Mass in C minor. Hans Christoph Worbs Translation: Lindsay Craig Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)