Mozart : Mass K.427 "Great" (Recons. H. Eder) [Live]

Presentación del Álbum

Mozart's Mass in C minor, K. 427, of 1783, known as the "Great" C minor mass, was left unfinished for unknown reasons, which is especially odd considering that Mozart was writing it for performance by his wife, Constanze, in Salzburg's grand St. Peter's Abbey. The mass marked Mozart's return to the city from which he had skipped out in a controversial situation two years earlier, and the plan was to introduce Constanze to Mozart's father and older sister. Thus he had every motivation to make a big impression with the work, and indeed it is of large dimensions, with a Handelian feel, but the Agnus Dei and second half of the Credo are missing. Various completions have been proposed; the one here, by Helmut Eder, adds missing orchestrations in the existing section but no new music. Marc Minkowski and his veteran early music group Les Musiciens du Louvre avoid the oddities of some of Minkowski's other recent recordings, with the only questionable decision being that to use the four soloists as the second "choir" in the Qui tollis; this is reasonable enough given the small size of the overall choir and the double-choir structure of the movement. As with other conductors originating in the historical performance movement, Minkowski uses a small choir and a moderate-sized orchestra; one could fault him for the choir size were it not that his nine singers, captured in a small auditorium (not a church), sing with a lot of power and end up sounding like a much larger group. More controversial for many listeners will be Minkowski's fast tempos, another trend common to Baroque orchestra performances of Mozart; the choruses have both momentum and precision, but the solos, despite the efforts of a fine group of singers, feel rushed. There are exceptions, such as the elegant Laudamus te from soprano Ambroisine Bré. One has the feeling that this unusual Mass in C minor will appeal to Minkowski fans, and there are a lot of them.

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