Mozart: Mass in C minor, K427 'Great'

Leading a distinguished team of soloists and chorus, and recorded in magnificent settings in Bavaria, Leonard Bernstein conducts Mozart’s two greatest sacred works “with the conviction he brings to all his work” (Gramophone). In addition there is a moving account of the beautiful motet Ave verum corpus and an exuberant Exsultate, jubilate, with the great Arleen Auger as soloist.

When Michel Corboz became a director of church music in Lausanne his knowledge and love of the voice led him to direct the works inspired by it – choruses, cantatas and oratorios. The series on Cascavelle is testament to his great work and brings these welcome releases into the choral catalogue.

In the autumn of 2010 CORO will release a brand new recording of Mozart’s Mass in C minor featuring Harry Christophers in his role as Artistic Director and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society - America’s oldest continuously performing orchestra and chorus - with celebrated soloists, including Gillian Keith.

In September 2008 Harry Christophers was appointed Artistic Director of Boston’s internationally-acclaimed Handel and Haydn Society. Founded in 1815, the Society premiered key works by Handel, Bach and Haydn in America, has won a Grammy Award and also has a place in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Harry has worked with the Society since 2006 and his inaugural concert as Artistic Director was in December 2009 with Handel’s Messiah.

Mozart’s Mass in C minor is one of the best-known and most widely performed of the composer’s mass settings and is generally considered to be one of his greatest works and, as such, is often referred to as the ‘Great Mass’. Unlike many of his other works the Mass was not a commission and Mozart wrote it purely for his own pleasure. It is a remarkable union of musical vision and religious text and draws on Mozart’s skill for drama that made his operatic works such a phenomenal success.

The Mass in C minor rightly justifies its illustrious place in the pantheon of sacred choral music.

“Onstage, Christophers has what it takes to inspire the Society’s fine musicians.” The Wall Street Journal

The Chamber Choir of Europe under Nicol Matt has become recognised as one of the finest choirs in the world.

Mozart commenced work on this Mass without the usual commission. In fact he said he was writing it to celebrate his marriage to Constanze, who was also pregnant with their first child. Constanze was a singer of considerable ability, and the soprano part in this Mass is technically very difficult. We know from the diary of Mozart’s sister Nannerl that Constanze did sing the work. The music in this Mass far outstrips that of any previous setting he had written. First, it is on a scale hitherto unheard of. Secondly, the harmonic and contrapuntal elements display a daring and brilliance that are remarkable even by this composer’s standards. Thirdly, unlike the previous Masses, this work has a distinctly personal feel to it. The music is very emotional, sometimes anguished, and often staggeringly beautiful. At this time in his life, Mozart was a happy man. However, the Mass was never completed. We have the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus. The Credo is only partial, and the Agnus Dei missing altogether. Why did Mozart abandon it? A cooling of his faith or love perhaps? The baby Raimund Leopold died on 19 August 1783, and on 25 August the completed parts of the Mass were performed with Constanze taking part. Nannerl’s diary records the concert, and that her brother left afterwards. He lived another eight years, but this was the last time brother and sister ever saw each other. Mozart rescued most of the music to set to Italian words in the oratorio Davidde penitente. The great C minor torso stands as one of his supreme masterpieces.

This 2-CD set contains recordings of music conducted by Gary Bertini when he was chief conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne of the West-German Radio Corporation Cologne (WDR). In the Mass in C Minor, the first soprano part is full of virtuoso technical difficulties – especially in the famous “Et incarnatus est” passage – and here legendary soprano Arleen Augér interprets it in an exemplary manner.