1 CD - 3984-23569-2 - (p) 1998

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)






Missa brevis in G major, KV 140 (Anh. 235d = K6 Anh. C 1.12)
16' 02"
- Kyrie 1' 34"
1
- Gloria 3' 29"
2
- Credo 4' 54"
3
- Sanctus 0' 55"
4
- Benedictus 1' 14"
5
- Agnus Dei
3' 56"
6
Missa brevis in F major, KV 192 (186f)
21' 29"
- Kyrie 3' 13"
7
- Gloria 4' 50"
8
- Credo 6' 32"
9
- Sanctus
1' 10"
10
- Benedictus 1' 57"
11
- Agnus Dei 3' 47"
12
Missa longa in C major, KV 262 (246a)
29' 41"
- Kyrie 3' 29"
13
- Gloria 5' 08"
14
- Credo 10' 52"
15
- Sanctus 2' 03"
16
- Benedictus 3' 09"
17
- Agnus Dei 5' 00"
18




 
Dorothea Röschmann, Soprano
Elisabeth von Magnus, Contralto

Herbert Lippert, Tenor
Gilles Cachemaille, Bass


Arnold Schönberg Chor / Erwin Ortner, Chorus Master



CONCENTUS MUSICUS WIEN (with original instruments)

- Alice Harnoncourt, Violin - Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello
- Anita Mitterer, Violin - Dorothea Guschlbauer, Violoncello
- Walter Pfeiffer, Violin - Eduard Hruza, Violone
- Silvia Walch-Iberer, Violin - Andrew Ackerman, Violone
- Editha Fetz, Violin - Hans Peter Westermann, Oboe (KV 262)
- Veronika Kröner, Violin (KV 140)
- Marie Wolf, Oboe (KV 262)
- Gertrud Weinmeister, Violin (KV 192, 262) - Christian Beuse, Fagott
- Annelie Gahl, Violin - Andreas Lackner, Naturtrompete (KV 192, 262)
- Ursula Kortschak, Violin
- Martin Rabl, Naturtrompete (KV 192, 262)
- Herlinde Schaller, Violin
- Sebastian Krause, Posaune
- Christian Tachezi, Violin - Josef Ritt, Posaune
- Gerold Klaus, Violin - Gerhard Proschinger, Posaune
- Barbara Klebel, Violin - Dieter Seiler, Pauken
- Peter Schoberwalter junior, Violin - Herbert Tachezi, Orgel
- Elisabeth Stifter, Violin



Nikolaus Harnoncourt
 
Luogo e data di registrazione
Casino Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - luglio 1996
Registrazione live / studio
studio
Producer / Engineer
Wolfgang Mohr / Helmut Mühle / Michael Brammann
Prima Edizione CD
Teldec "Das Alte Werk" - 3984-23569-2 - (1 cd) - 67' 20" - (p) 1998 - DDD
Prima Edizione LP
-

Notes
Mozart and the Salzburg Court Orchestra Tradition
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the Salzburg court orchestra was one of the leading musical institutions north of the Alps, with the local prince-archbishops ambitiously anxious that their court remained at the cutting edge of cultural ostentation. This was especially true of the court orchestra, which was famous throughout the second half of the l7th century not least as a result of its performances of the great sacred works of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber and the instrumental works of Georg Muffat. Italian cultural influence had always played an important role in Salzburg's history and was to leave its mark increasingly on sacred music in the city, more especially in the wake of the Counter-Refonnation.
And so it was that markedly operatic features began to infiltrate sacred music, too. As the leading form of music in the l7th and 18th century, opera maintained a ubiquitous presence in the musical life of the time, finding a sacred counterpart in the missa concertata, a hybrid form of Mass characterised by contrapuntal choral sections, extended passages for virtuoso soloists and often lavish instrumentation. Although Pope Benedict XlV banned trumpets, timpani, horns and solo singing by castratos in 1749, his ban was generally ignored on ceremonial occasions.
Not until the final third of the 18th century were more far-reaching reforms undertaken, with the church music of the period - until then often operatic in its extravagance - now being simplified and, above all, curtailed in length, Salzburg played a key role in this development, not least as a result of the highly restrictive reforms of Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. The aim was now a type of setting - the missa brevis - that could be performed during celebration of Mass and which, for all its elaborate artistry, was strictly tied to the Liturgy, intelligible and populist in its appeal.
It was leading composers of Mozart's early tears such as Anton Cajetan Adlgasser and Johann Ernst Eberlin but, above all, Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn who conjointly created this compromissorial stilus mixtus, with the demands of the reform movement being met by more concise declamation, fewer textual repeats and brief solo passages thematically integrated into the pieces overall structure. There was, however, a general reluctance to dispense with trumpets, timpani and sometimes even with horns, especially on the more festive occasions.
In spite of his reservations concerning the restrictions imposed on him, the young Mozart none the less revealed himself as an expert in this field with the Masses that he wrote for Salzburg Cathedral. Thanks not only to his creative imagination and unfailing sense of both musical scale and thematic unity but, above all, to his unique understanding of the emotional pulling power of popular religion, he was able to create a whole series of masterpieces with no trace of any routine to them. Although written to commission for an archbishop whom he hated, these Masses none the less breathe a spirit of serene and sometimes even jovial piety that often seems to transform the church interior into a celestial ballroom.

Missa brevis in G major K 140 ("Pastoral Mass")
The pastoral Mass developed around the middle of the 18th century in southern Germany and Bohemia and was intended for the first and second Mass on Christmas Day. Its thematic vocabulary was invariably inspired by popular tunes, and the work often included well-known Christmas carols and other music with pastoral associations.
Mozart's Missa brevis K 140 largely reflects this pattern. Its authenticity was repeatedly questioned by earlier writers, but Mozart's authorship now seems confirmed by more recent research. It is scored for local soloists, chorus, two violins, bass and organ and fully conforms to the established idea of a pastoral Mass for Christmas with its songlike simplicity and its numerous folklike elements, such associations being clearly intended to evoke a picture of the Adoration of the Shepherds.
The pastoral tone is set from the my beginning with the gently rocking triple-time metre of the Kyrie (marked "Andantino") and continues in the Gloria, an Allegro in a 6/8 siciliana rhythm. The rapid interplay between soloists and chorus includes several quotations from an early ballet score by Mozart borrowings that are also found in the Sanctus and Benedictus.
The outer sections of the Credo are dominated by a playful violin figure and frame an "Et incarnatus" for soprano soloist of moving interiority. But the most striking feature of this Mass is the clear emphasis on homophonic vocal writing which, songlike in its simplicity, relegates the orchestra to what, for Mozart, is an unusually subordinate role.

Missa brevis in F major K 192 ("Little Credo Mass")
K 192 was originally scored for soloists, chorus, two violins, bass and organ, in other words for the instrumental forces normally used for Sunday services, but Mozart later included parts for two horns and two trumpets, to which must he added timpani, an instrument for which no separate pert exists but which wen invariably used at this period in association with trumpets.
It seems that it was not only in Salzburg but elsewhere, too, that extra instruments might be added to works initially intended for simple Sunday services in order to adapt them for more important feast days. This particular Mass is widely regarded as one of the finest of Mozart's missae breves, a status it owes to the motivic unity of its individual parts and to in memorable use of imitative counterpoint - a use that even overshadows the exuberance of its melodic writing.
The instruinental textures have it chumberlike lightness of touch, a lightness to which the numerous motifs drawn from dance and folk music contribute in no small way. The uutograph score is dated 24 June 1774, suggesting that the work may have been written for the Feast of St John the Baptist.
As early as 1771, Mozart had already used a well-known folksong as the theme of his motet Inter natos mulierum (another piece intended for the Feast of St John), and in the present Mess, too, we repeatedly find him falling back on folklike motifs that reflect the contemporary popularity of this feast. Especially memorable are the cries of "credo" scattered throughout the third of this setting's six movements: besed on a four-note motif that Mozart often used in his symphonies, including his final contribution to the medium, the “Jupiter” Symphony of 1788, it is these that have given K 192 its alternative name of "Little Credo Mass".

Missa longa in C major K 262
This work occupies a special place within Mozart's sacred compositions, reflecting, as it does, the tradition of the missa solemnis not only in its length but also in its great concluding fugues and extended Credo. This is also true of the unusually lavish forces for which it is scored, with two oboes, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones and timpani in addition to the usual church trio. The work is believed to have been composed in April
l776, and although we do not know for certain the occasion for which it was written, there now seems to be general agreement that it was intended for Salzburg Cathedral. Whether it received its first performance at Easter 1776 is as open to question as the suggestion that it may have been heard at the ordination of Count lgnaz Joseph Spaur as bishop of Chrysopel in November 1776.
What is beyond doubt is that this Mass is one of the most expressive that Mozart ever wrote. The festive Kyrie is introduced by an extended orchestral introduction, while in interplay between soloists and chorus is notable for its elaborate imitative writing. In the ternary Gloria, the oppressire "Qui tollts" and the desperate entreaty of the following cries of "miserere" create a particularly striking emotional high point, while the five-part Credo impressively underlines the theological link between Christ's birth and death with the Adagio ma non troppo of the "Et incarnatus" (scored for the four vocal soloists) followed by the “Crucifixus” for full chorus.
In the fourth section of the Credo, the “Et in Spiritum Sanctum", the idea of the lHoly Ghost is suggested by means of the ethereal lightness of the triple-time vocal duet between soprano soloist and chorus. The Credo ends with one of the most substantial fugues ever written by Mozart.
The relatively brief but majestically austere Sanctus is followed by a Benedictus set as a lyrical quartet for the four vocal soloists repeatedly interrupted by shouts of "Hosanna" on the part of the chorus, thereby evoking a vision of Christ’s festive entry Jerusalem. In the Agnus Dei. the setting of the worrls "qui tollis peccata mundi" dramatically suggests the weight of man's burden of sin, before anxiously entreating cries of "miserere" lead to a further emotional high point. The urgent but, at the same time, optimistic gestures of entreaty of the "Dona nobis pacem" bring the work to an end.
Johanna Fürstauer
Translation: Stewart Spencer

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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