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1 CD -
3984-23569-2 - (p) 1998
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Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) |
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Missa brevis in G major, KV
140 (Anh. 235d = K6 Anh. C 1.12) |
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16' 02" |
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- Kyrie |
1' 34" |
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1
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- Gloria |
3' 29" |
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2
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- Credo |
4' 54" |
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3
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- Sanctus |
0' 55" |
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4
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Benedictus |
1' 14" |
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5
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- Agnus Dei
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3' 56" |
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6
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Missa brevis in F major, KV
192 (186f) |
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21' 29" |
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- Kyrie |
3' 13" |
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7
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- Gloria |
4' 50" |
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8
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- Credo |
6' 32" |
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9
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- Sanctus
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1' 10" |
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10
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Benedictus |
1' 57" |
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11
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- Agnus Dei |
3' 47" |
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12
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Missa longa in C major, KV
262 (246a) |
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29' 41" |
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- Kyrie |
3' 29" |
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13
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- Gloria |
5' 08" |
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14
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- Credo |
10' 52" |
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15
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- Sanctus |
2' 03" |
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16
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Benedictus |
3' 09" |
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17
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- Agnus Dei |
5' 00" |
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18
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Dorothea
Röschmann, Soprano |
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Elisabeth von
Magnus, Contralto
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Herbert Lippert,
Tenor |
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Gilles
Cachemaille, Bass |
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Arnold Schönberg
Chor / Erwin Ortner, Chorus
Master
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CONCENTUS MUSICUS
WIEN (with original
instruments)
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Alice Harnoncourt, Violin |
- Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello |
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Anita Mitterer, Violin |
- Dorothea
Guschlbauer, Violoncello |
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Walter Pfeiffer, Violin |
- Eduard Hruza, Violone |
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Silvia Walch-Iberer, Violin |
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Andrew Ackerman, Violone |
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Editha Fetz, Violin |
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Hans Peter Westermann, Oboe (KV
262) |
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Veronika Kröner, Violin (KV 140)
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- Marie Wolf, Oboe
(KV 262) |
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Gertrud Weinmeister, Violin (KV
192, 262) |
- Christian Beuse, Fagott |
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Annelie Gahl, Violin |
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Andreas Lackner, Naturtrompete
(KV 192, 262) |
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Ursula Kortschak, Violin
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Martin Rabl, Naturtrompete (KV
192, 262) |
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Herlinde Schaller, Violin
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Sebastian Krause, Posaune |
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Christian Tachezi, Violin |
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Josef Ritt, Posaune |
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Gerold Klaus, Violin |
- Gerhard
Proschinger, Posaune |
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Barbara Klebel, Violin |
- Dieter Seiler, Pauken |
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Peter Schoberwalter junior, Violin |
- Herbert Tachezi, Orgel |
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Elisabeth Stifter, Violin |
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt |
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Luogo
e data di registrazione
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Casino
Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - luglio 1996 |
Registrazione
live / studio
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studio |
Producer
/ Engineer
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Wolfgang
Mohr / Helmut Mühle / Michael Brammann
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Prima Edizione CD
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Teldec
"Das Alte Werk" - 3984-23569-2 - (1 cd)
- 67' 20" - (p) 1998 - DDD |
Prima
Edizione LP
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Notes
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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
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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