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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1785 Mozart, Amadeus Wolfgang Scissor cut silhouette by Johann Hieronymus Löschenkohl (1753 – 1807) / AKG Images, London Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) Missa, KV 317 ‘Coronation’*† 25:06 in C major • in C-Dur • en ut majeur 1 Kyrie. Andante maestoso – Più andante – Maestoso come prima 2:51 2 Gloria. Allegro con spirito 4:33 3 Church Sonata, KV 67 2:28 in E flat major • in Es-Dur • en mi bémol majeur for two violins, organ, cello, and double-bass Margaret Faultless • Simon Jones violins John Challenger organ Andrew Skidmore cello Kate Aldridge double-bass Andantino Missa, KV 317 ‘Coronation’*† 4 Credo. ‘Credo in unum Deum’. Allegro molto – ‘Et incarnatus est’. Adagio – ‘Et resurrexit tertia die’. Primo tempo 6:39 3 5 Church Sonata, KV 224 3:12 in F major • in F-Dur • en fa majeur for two violins, organ, cello, and double-bass Margaret Faultless • Simon Jones violins John Challenger organ Andrew Skidmore cello Kate Aldridge double-bass Allegro con spirito Missa, KV 317 ‘Coronation’*† 6 Sanctus. ‘Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth’. Andante maestoso – ‘Hosanna in excelsis’. Allegro assai 1:36 7 Benedictus. ‘Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini’. Allegretto – ‘Hosanna in excelsis’. Allegro assai – ‘Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini’. Allegretto – ‘Hosanna in excelsis’. Allegro assai 3:13 8 Agnus Dei. ‘Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi’. Andante sostenuto – ‘dona nobis pacem’. Andante con moto – Allegro con spirito 6:07 4 9 Ave verum Corpus, KV 618 3:46 Adagio Missa brevis, KV 192*† 21:38 in F major • in F-Dur • en fa majeur 10 Kyrie. Allegro 3:21 11 Gloria. Allegro 4:34 12 Credo. ‘Credo in unum Deum’. Allegro – Adagio – ‘Et vitam venturi saeculi’. Allegro 5:35 13 Sanctus. ‘Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth’. Andante – ‘Hosanna in excelsis’. Allegro 1:30 14 Benedictus. ‘Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini’. Andantino – ‘Hosanna in excelsis’. Allegro 2:16 15 Agnus Dei. ‘Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi’. Adagio – ‘dona nobis pacem’. Allegro moderato 4:16 5 Exsultate, jubilate, KV165* 14:22 16 ‘Exsultate, jubilate’. Allegro – 4:27 17 ‘Fulget amica dies’ – 0:49 18 ‘Tu, virginum corona’. Andante – 6:28 19 ‘Alleluja’. Molto allegro 2:35 TT 70:35 Susan Gritton soprano* Frances Bourne mezzo-soprano† Sam Furness tenor† George Humphreys baritone† John Challenger organ Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge St John’s Sinfonia Margaret Faultless leader Andrew Nethsingha 6 Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge Director of Music Andrew Nethsingha Organ Scholars John Challenger Freddie James treble counter-tenor bass Ethan Bamber Thomas Blackie Geoffrey Clapham Alexander Bower-Brown Dominic Collingwood George Dye Francis Bushell Nicholas Edwards Huw Leslie Jason Cobb James Imam Daniel Macklin Alec D’Oyly Timothy Teague Basil McDonald Julius Foo Henry Neill Peter Hicks tenor Matthew Holman Guy Edmund-Jones Alexander Jones Julian Gregory Andrew Jones Samuel Oladeinde Robert Murray-John Bradley Smith Rufus Pawsey Pablo Strong Justin Stollery Matthew Supramaniam Michael Tuft Jed Upjohn 7 St John’s Sinfonia violin I cello trumpet Margaret Faultless Andrew Skidmore Paul Sharp Madeleine Easton Jonathan Rees Stephen Cutting Jane Gordon Iona Davies double-bass timpani Kate Aldridge Charles Fullbrook violin II Simon Jones oboe trombone Jean Paterson Katharina Spreckelsen Claire McIntyre Linda Hannah Frances Norbury Abigail Newman Kathryn Parry Pat Jackman bassoon viola Zoe Shevlin Emilia Benjamin Aliye Cornish horn Gavin Edwards David Bentley 8 Mozart: ‘Coronation’ Mass and other liturgical works The dissatisfaction which Mozart felt with He bemoaned the Archbishop’s liturgical the artistic mediocrity of Salzburg and reforms, which dictated that musical settings his intense dislike of the dictatorial ruler of the Mass should be shorter than hitherto. of his birthplace are well documented. Mozart felt artistically compromised, Indeed, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, although he was still able to use a full Hieronymus Colloredo, was resented by orchestra (including pairs of oboes and horns, many of his subjects. Colloredo’s political Salzburg’s trademark three trombones to and ecclesiastical reforms were supported double the lower voices of the choir, and the by the Imperial Court in Vienna, but were all-important festal trumpets and drums). frequently met with dismay by Salzburg’s And without wishing to patronise the greatest civic officials and cathedral chapter alike. composer of all time, we must acknowledge Yet, the twenty-two-year-old Mozart craved that the constraints placed on Mozart by his a stipend and was prepared – for the time employer lend a thrilling incisiveness to this being at least – to knuckle under and take the compact work. job of Court Organist. The Archbishop was The C major Mass (the eighth that Mozart self-servingly gracious in granting Mozart a had written in this key) was completed on salary of 450 florins, the amount previously 23 March 1779 and was first performed paid to Anton Adlgasser, Mozart’s predecessor, as part of the Easter liturgy of Salzburg who had served the cathedral with distinction Cathedral two weeks later. ‘Paschal’ Mass for over a quarter of a century and who had or ‘New Appointment’ Mass would be suffered a fatal stroke at the organ console just appropriate titles in terms of the work’s over a year earlier. usage and genesis respectively, but as the Mass achieved renown for its performance at ‘Coronation’ Mass, KV 317 the Imperial Coronation in Prague in 1792 Within weeks of his appointment, Mozart (nine months after Mozart’s death), the title had composed the ‘Coronation’ Mass. ‘Coronation’ Mass stuck. 9 The Kyrie begins in solemn manner. The The efficiency with which Mozart treats dotted rhythms, the portentous harmonies, the lengthy texts of both Gloria and Credo and the resonant orchestral texture all befit is impressive. Although this is born out of a work of monumental proportions. The necessity (owing to the new requirement for sudden transition to the semi-buoyant arrival shorter mass settings), Mozart developed of the soprano and tenor soloists is a thinly an aesthetic that worked perfectly and is veiled compositional protest, which indicates dramatically satisfying. The Credo is in rondo to the listener that enforced brevity is form, with the choir hammering out martial unwelcome. Fortunately, Mozart was a more recitatives at the beginning, middle, and focused craftsman than he was a resentful end. The text is powerfully accented, and at employee, and thereafter his musical integrity two points, above a dominant pedal in the won the day. relative minor (‘Dominum Jesum Christum’ The Kyrie thus acts as a piquant, if and ‘cum gloria’), the strong beats are over- marginally uncomfortable, introduction to emphasised in an audibly impatient manner; the blistering Gloria. Now the Easter lights we are reminded that this music is the work are illuminated, and the celebration of the of an impetuous young man. After the choir Resurrection is in full swing. The opulence has descended in polyphonic sequence at of the Gloria is unmistakable, and the the words ‘descendit de caelis’, the soloists alternation of the solo vocal quartet (concerto) introduce a profound passage at the words and choir (ripieno) significantly enhances ‘Et incarnatus est’. The music would have the drama of the text, which Mozart scored accompanied the genuflection of the entire with operatic clarity. So the choir, for congregation, and the theological point is well instance, forcefully praises and glorifies, made by the sensitively changing harmonies while the soloists more intimately bless and the wistful writing for first violins. The and worship. Such attention to textual choral entry at ‘Crucifixus’, underpinned, as detail would have been even more striking ever, by subtle trombone doubling, prolongs to worshippers in late-eighteenth-century the spine-tingling drama until the highly Salzburg because of the customary spatial charged atmosphere is suddenly interrupted separation of the concerto and ripieno groups by the return of the rondo material at in the cathedral. the moment when the text turns to the 10 Resurrection. The soloists shimmer at ‘Et in in Le nozze di Figaro (1786) is unmistakable. Spiritum’, until the choir and busy violins The alternation of plucked and bowed strings, introduce the rondo theme for the third time. the muted violins, the artfully scored oboes, The same descending sequence now carries and the sparingly used horns make this one the word ‘Amen’ and, with a loud restatement of the most sublime sections of all church of the opening four words, the movement music. There can have been no doubt in the closes in grand style. mind of anybody who attended Mass in The triple-time Sanctus is almost terse in Salzburg Cathedral on 4 April 1779 that its predominantly syllabic presentation. The the Archbishop was justified in appointing trumpets and drums provide just enough Mozart to the post of Court Organist. All majesty, and the dotted rhythms of the string four soloists begin the ‘dona nobis pacem’ parts are just grandiloquent enough, to carry and are answered by the choir. That the final the music through to the hemiola-infused section uses the music from the very opening ‘Hosanna’. Even though the Benedictus of the Mass gives perfect closure to this would have been separated from the Sanctus satisfying work. by the Consecration, the Benedictus acts as the musical resolution of the Sanctus. Gently Missa brevis, KV 192 playful violin writing heralds the entry of Almost five years earlier, the eighteen-year-old the solo vocal quartet, which asserts itself in Mozart had completed the finest of his very quasi-operatic style. The ‘Hosanna’ breaks in, early masses. The Missa brevis in F was finished and the listener is about to feel short-changed on 24 June 1774, and possesses a remarkably when – with a stroke of genius on Mozart’s tight structure.

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