Mozart: Church (Epistle) Sonata No. 1 in E flat major for organ & strings, K67

On this disc, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge performs alongside four soloists and the period instrument ensemble St John’s Sinfonia. The tenor Sam Furness and bass George Humphreys both started their careers as Choral Scholars with this very choir. The mezzo-soprano Frances Bourne is in great demand on the concert platform and has sung with many of Europe’s leading conductors; the soprano Susan Gritton has amassed a vast discography that has earned her two Grammy nominations and includes, for Chandos, recordings of works by Haydn, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Vaughan Williams.

Mozart wrote the ‘Coronation’ Mass just two weeks into his appointment as Court Organist for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. As it was first performed as part of the Easter liturgy of Salzburg Cathedral, perhaps ‘Paschal’ Mass would have been a more suitable title. However, the work achieved great renown after its performance at the Imperial Coronation in Prague, which took place nine months after Mozart’s death, and the name stuck. The opulence of the Gloria, in particular, is unmistakable, and the alternations between soloists and choir add drama to the text, which Mozart scored with operatic clarity. Here the choir forcefully praises and glorifies, while the soloists more intimately bless and worship.

Also on this disc is Susan Gritton’s first-ever recorded performance of Mozart’s dramatic solo cantata Exsultate jubilate, and a motet for the Feast of Corpus Christi, Ave verum corpus. Mozart’s Church Sonatas, which number seventeen in all, span a period of ten years; because of their beauty and simplicity they achieved a much wider use, beyond the church and into the concert hall.

The Missa brevis, KV 192 highlights Mozart’s ability to write music for the church that was not significantly different in style to the music of the court or the opera house. This mass is known as the ‘Little Credo Mass’ because of the repeated interjections of the short ‘Credo’ theme throughout – a five-note motif which Mozart many years later would use as the main theme of the last movement of his final symphony.

The sonatas composed in chamber style for several instruments seem to have been imposed on the Church by Salzburg custom of the time. Following in his father's footsteps, W.A. Mozart composed 17 such sonatas between 1772 and 1780. Their structure, with a single usually rapid movement stems from the purest Baroque style, yet they belong amongst the founding works of Classical style and the concertante aspect of some of them is really stunning!

The world renowned organ player Daniel Chorzempa plays the choir organ of the abbey church of Wilhering. He is joined by the German Bach Soloists a world-renowned, Baroque-period instrumental ensemble led by the German conductor and oboist, Helmut Winschermann, who founded the chamber orchestra in 1960.

Zsigmond Szathmary presents a recording of little known music by Mozart with a colorful new sound.

Originally composed as so-called "acoustical fillers" for the liturgy, Mozart's Church Sonatas are nonetheless anything but occasional compositions. Organist Johannes Geffert and the Johann Christian Bach Academy prove, with the present recording, that these works are autonomous works in their own right with significant musical content. The interpreters' joy in performing, together with their perfect craftsmanship and, in terms of sound engineering, the transparent transformation of the sound of historical instruments, allow these seemingly occasional pieces to flourish as little personalities.