Post by erik on Oct 22, 2022 12:35:30 GMT -5
However ambivalent Mozart may have been about religion, he wrote a lot of sacred music throughout his short time in the world. One such example, though far less well known than other such examples of his, is the Missa Brevis spotlighted this week.
Mozart: MISSA BREVIS IN C MAJOR, K. 258 (PICCOLOMINI)
For all of his ambivalences about religion as religion (he was both a Catholic and a member of the Freemasons at the time of his untimely demise on December 5, 1791), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a fairly large amount of religious music, including perhaps as many as two dozen settings of the Latin Mass. Many of these works, however, were relatively unknown for two centuries thereafter, with the Coronation (#16) and Great C Minor (#17) being the best known of his Mass settings, and the Requiem (which was only half-finished at the time of his death) remaining exceptionally popular. One of his earliest such works was a “short mass”, or Missa Brevis, known as, alternately, the “Spaur” of “Piccolomini” Mass, composed in 1776, when Mozart was 20. With a running time of seventeen minutes, this C Major mass is usually considered a short mass, although it could also be called a “missa brevis et solemnis” (a short and solemn Mass) because of the presence of trumpets in the score, as well as two oboes, strings, timpani, and trombones. The original score for this mass was discovered in Italy’s Brixen Brixen Cathedral in 2007; but it is the revised score that is usually performed when this Mass is performed, as is the case with the 1983 recording in question here.
Soprano: MITSUKO SHIRAI
Contralto: MARGA SCHIML
Tenor: ARMIN UDE
Bass-Baritone: HERMAN CHRISTIAN POISTER
Leipzig Radio Choir
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra/HERBERT KEGEL (Philips)
Included:
MISSA LONGA IN C MAJOR, K. 262
Mozart: MISSA BREVIS IN C MAJOR, K. 258 (PICCOLOMINI)
For all of his ambivalences about religion as religion (he was both a Catholic and a member of the Freemasons at the time of his untimely demise on December 5, 1791), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a fairly large amount of religious music, including perhaps as many as two dozen settings of the Latin Mass. Many of these works, however, were relatively unknown for two centuries thereafter, with the Coronation (#16) and Great C Minor (#17) being the best known of his Mass settings, and the Requiem (which was only half-finished at the time of his death) remaining exceptionally popular. One of his earliest such works was a “short mass”, or Missa Brevis, known as, alternately, the “Spaur” of “Piccolomini” Mass, composed in 1776, when Mozart was 20. With a running time of seventeen minutes, this C Major mass is usually considered a short mass, although it could also be called a “missa brevis et solemnis” (a short and solemn Mass) because of the presence of trumpets in the score, as well as two oboes, strings, timpani, and trombones. The original score for this mass was discovered in Italy’s Brixen Brixen Cathedral in 2007; but it is the revised score that is usually performed when this Mass is performed, as is the case with the 1983 recording in question here.
Soprano: MITSUKO SHIRAI
Contralto: MARGA SCHIML
Tenor: ARMIN UDE
Bass-Baritone: HERMAN CHRISTIAN POISTER
Leipzig Radio Choir
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra/HERBERT KEGEL (Philips)
Included:
MISSA LONGA IN C MAJOR, K. 262