Mozart : Missa solemnis - Mayr : Te Deum

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Simon Mayr

Released on 10/27/09 by Naxos
Main artists: Franz Hauk
Genre: Choral Music (Choirs)

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When is Mozart not Mozart? Well, one plausible example is when it's not Wolfgang Amadeus, but his father Leopold, or for that matter Abbé Georg Vogler, Franz Xaver Brixi, or any number of other figures within 18th century music that you've probably never heard of. Although this alleged Mozart Missa solemnis in C major, officially designated KV C1.20 -- which means it's in Anhang "C," the very basement of Mozart attributions -- is billed below Bavarian composer Simon Mayr's unquestionably authentic Te Deum in D major (1805), it is actually the main course on this Naxos disc, which features the Ingolstadt Georgian Chamber Orchestra and the Simon Mayr Choir under Franz Hauk with a group of solo singers. Recorded in Ingolstadt at the Asamkirche Maria de Victoria, it's a rather distant and weak recording overall, with no detail represented in very strong relief. In comparison to its prior Naxos release Simon Mayr: L'Armonia; Cantata for the Death of Beethoven, the Simon Mayr Choir sound a shade more disciplined here, though still lacking in some elements of coordination. The Ingolstadt Georgian Chamber Orchestra is, apart from the winds, difficult to hear, particularly the string section; the faintest trace of an obbligato organ part can be detected in parts of the Missa solemnis if you incline your ear toward it. The so-so recording quality is rather a pity, as Mayr's Te Deum seems like a much more interesting piece than the execrable Cantata for the Death of Beethoven on the earlier disc; Mayr's instrumentation is lively and widely varied and Mayr's setting of the Latin text is both energetic and engaging.
The reason for combining the supposed Mozart Te Deum with the Mayr is that the best of several copies of this work found throughout Europe was made by him. Mayr's copy also bears a date of 1802, which confirms that the work existed before then, and there are a couple of movements -- the opening Kyrie and the Qui tollis peccata mundi -- that contain enough of a genuine Mozartian flavor that it suggests this might have been a work of Leopold Mozart's that his son slightly touched up. However, the cheeky, overwrought Dona nobis pacem that concludes the work is of such a low level of accomplishment that to suggest either Mozart is responsible for it seems patently ridiculous. So there is likely an element of pastiche to the composition of this Missa solemnis, in which case we might never know who really wrote it. If you are the kind of listener who likes to play the guessing games of tricky attributions or are strongly interested in Mozart works that are not likely his, then on that basis alone, Naxos' Mayr: Te Deum; Mozart: Missa solemnis is of redeeming value. Otherwise, the engineering alone is enough to scuttle it.

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Mozart : Missa solemnis - Mayr : Te Deum

Priska Eser-Streit

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Missa solemnis in C Major, K. Anh. C1.20 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

Kyrie