1 LP - 6.43535 AZ - (p) 1987 1 CD - 8.43535 ZK - (p) 1987

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Missa in C-dur, KV 317 "Krönungsmesse" 25' 52" - Kyrie: Andante maestoso - Più andante - Andante maestoso 2' 57" A1 - Gloria: Allegro con spirito 4' 34" A2 - Credo: Allegro molto - Adagio - Tempo I 6' 17" A3 - Sanctus: Andante maestoso - Allegro assai 1' 51" A4 - Benedictus: Allegretto - Allegro assai 3' 36" A5 - Agnus Dei: Andante sostenuto - Andante con moto - Allegro con spirito 6' 37" A6 Vesperae solennes de confessore, KV 339 31' 36" - I. Dixit: Allegro vivace - Deus, in adjutorium meum intende -  (Antiphon: Domine, quinque talenta) 5' 43" B1 - II. Confitebor: Allegro - (Antiphon: Euge serve bone) 5' 11" B2 - III. Beatus vir: Allegro vivace - (Antiphon: Fidelis servus et prudens) 5' 17" B3 - IV. Laudate pueri: (Alla breve) - (Antiphon: Beatus ille servus) 4' 14" B4 - V. Laudate Dominum: Andate ma un poco sostenuto - (Antiphon: Serve bone et fidelis) 4' 42" B5 - VI. Magnifikat: Adagio-Allegro - (Antiphon: Hic vir, despiciens mundum) - Benedicamus 6' 29" B6   Joan Rodgers, Sopran Elisabeth von Magnus, Alt Josef Protschka, Tenor László Polgar, Baß Arnold-Schönberg-Chor / Erwin Ortner, Leitung Choralschola der Wiener Hofburgkapelle / P. Hubert Dopf, Leitung Concentus Musicus Wien (mit Originalinstrumenten) - Erich Höbarth, Violin - Eduard Hruza, Kontrabaß - Alice Harnoncourt, Violin - Andrew Ackerman, Kontrabaß - Andrea Bischof, Violin - David Reichenberg, Oboe - Peter Schoberwalter, Violin - Marie Wolf, Oboe - Karl Höffinger, Violin - Alberto Grazzi, Fagott - Helmut Mitter, Violin - Elmar Eisner, Horn - Anita Mitterer, Violin - Alois Schlor, Horn - Walter Pfeiffer, Violin - Ernst Hoffman, Posaune - Peter Matzka, Violin - Josef Ritt, Posaune - Annemarie Ortner, Violin - Horst Küblböck, Possaune - Gerold Klaus, Violin - Karl Steininger, Trompete - Peter Schoberwalter jun., Violin - Hermann Schober, Trompete - Rudolf Leopold, Violoncello - Michael Vladar, Pauken - Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello - Herbert Tachezi, Orgel Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leitung   Luogo e data di registrazione Casino Zögernitz, Vienna  (Austria) - dicembre 1986 Registrazione live / studio studio Producer / Engineer - Prima Edizione CD Teldec - 8.43535 ZK - (1 cd) - 57' 55" - (p) 1987 - DDD Prima Edizione LP Teldec - 6.43535 AZ - (1 lp) - 57' 55" - (p) 1987 - Digital Notes Mozart was not a happy man when he had to return to the employ of Hieronymus Colloredo, the Archbishop of Salzburg, on l5th January I779. The trip lasting more than a year to Mannheim and Paris had brought him important friendships with other composers in Mannheim, but also a series of failures, disappointments and blows of fate. Mozart’s mother had died in Paris, Aloysia Weber had refused his offer of marriage in Mannheim. All his attempts to gain a foothold as a composer in Munich, Mannheim or Paris had been without success. After a journey that began so promisingly, the 23-year-old composer had no choice but to return to his native Salzburg, to the house of his father and to the service of a master he disliked - the first major defeat of his life. For one thing was becoming increasingly clear to Mozart since the visit to Paris: the life of a free artist seemed to suit him better, notwithstanding all the financial difficulties involved, than a secure job with a prince whose wishes he had to bow to, although he did not recognise him as his master. “The Archbishop cannot pay me enough for the slavery in Salzburg!” And “the Archbishop had better not start to lord it with me as he used to - I might just thumb my nose at him!” Thus Mozart in a letter to his father, when it became evident that the return to Salzburg was unavoidable. He hated his home town, and it crippled his imagination to write for audiences who showed no interest in his music. “You can believe me that I prefer working to idling around”, Mozart wrote to his father in May 1781. “In Salzburg, I have admit, I had to forcc myself to work, and only just managed it. Why? Because I wasn’t in good spirits.” One of the first works from Mozart’s “feudal service” in Salzburg, which was brought to an aprupt end on 8th June l78l when the palace chef Count Arco kicked him out of the archiepiscopal chambers, was the Mass in C major K. 3l7, the socalled “Coronation Mass”. Mozart completed the work on 23rd March 1779. The title presumably refers to the coronation of the Madonna in the pilgrimage church of Maria am Plain near Salzburg, a celebration that was carried out every year with great pomp and display. In June l75l the Pope himself had even consecrated the precious crown of the Virgin. The Coronation Mass was Mozart’s ninth mass in the key of C major. Although it reflects the taste of the Prince-Archbishop in its concise simplicity, with for the most part homophonic choral movements, the musical impressions left by the trip to Mannheim and Paris are clearly in evidence. In comparison with the earlier masses, the orchestral treatment is more highly differentiated, although there are no violas and the choruses are accompanied by three trombones, in accordance with Salzburg tradition. Also, the desire to achieve a stricter formal structure for the mass setting can be seen. For example, Mozart takes up the theme of the “Kyrie” again right at the end of the Mass in the “Dona” and rounds off the liturgical work musically in terms of motifs. All the other movements have the same formal consistency, which was not customary in the earlier masses. The “Gloria” is based on a three-part form with the “Qui tollis” as the central section. A rondo form is the basis of the “Credo”. The “Sanctus” is held together by an instrumental ostinato, and the “Benedictus” also has a three-part tendency - here Mozart inserts the main idea once more as an episode in the “Osanna”. Last of all, the “Agnus Dei” underlines how little distinction was made in Mozart’s time between church music and opera: the opening brings a clear reminder of the Countess’s aria “Dove sono i mei momenti” in The Marriage of Figaro. The Vesperae solennes de confessore K339, composed in August 1780, belong to a different world. Where the Coronation Mass is self-contained and consistent in terms of key and motifs, each of the psalms in the Vespers is given a different musical character. These psalms have only the tempo in common - all movements are allegro with the exception of the opening adagio pathos of the Magnificat. The greatest contrast is to be found between the two consecutive psalms “Laudate pueri” and “Laudate Dominum“. The former is a choral fugue in strict contrapuntal writing with a main theme which with its jump of a diminished seventh documents Mozart’s nascent interest in the techniques of Baroque music. The latter is a soloistic, almost unearthly siciliano whose pastoral character is emphasized by a solo bassoon marked “ad libitum”. Both the Coronation Mass and the Vesperae solennes de confessore belong, like liturgical music in general, to the category of ‘utility music’ - music intended to be heard only once, with accordingly small interest in its aritstic value. This makes it all the more remarkable that Mozart wrote to his father, when he made the acquaintance of the music collection Baron van Swieten in Vienna 1783, asking him to send him the masses and vespers so that he could perform them once more for a private audience. “Only so that B. van Suiten can hear him. He will sing discant; I shall sing the alto and play at the same time; Starzer will take the tenor part and the boy Teyber from Italy the bass. Please do send something soon - we look forward to the musical meetings on Sundays.” At a time when Mozart had stopped writing church music, he seperated his religious works from their liturgical context and used them for their musical value. This recording goes back to the original performing practice of the Vespers; in the Vesper service each psalm was introduced and followed by an antiphon - this freaming suggets the sequence of a number of` choral movements in allegro tempo as a sensible musical solution. Silke Leopold Translation: Clive Williams Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)