Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) - Missa Solemnis in C (World Premiere Recording)

Only a handful of works by Leopold Mozart are available in reprints. The vast majority are housed in the manuscript collection of South German and Austrian libraries. It is therefore still no easy task to assess his importance.

His son Wolfgang Amadeus had a high regard for him as a composer and even in his later years in Vienna chose to perform several of his works. Moreover, during the last few decades a number of items in the Köchel catalogue have been identified on sound documentary evidence as being by Leopold.

The Mass in C is a case in point. In the old Köchel catalogue it figures as K 115 with a reference to a long-vanished autograph score, but in 1975 the manuscript turned up at an auction and it was in Leopold's own hand. It contains only the vocal parts and a keyboard accompaniment (organ) and breaks off after the first nine bars of the Sanctus. Comparison with the two complete manuscript sources of the work reveals that this autograph is in fact a concentrated sketch for the final score; several of its vocal sections were preserved intact, while others were considerably expanded.

Two sets of parts were produced in the Salzburg area, probably during the 1760s; the more valuable is still preserved in the archives of St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg. The orchestration is the same in both: two clarino trumpets, two horns, strings and organ, and one of them has a part for solo flute. This suggests that the Mass was not in fact intended for Salzburg Cathedral, since, the latter has no violas. It is possible that the Mass was written for St. Peter's Church. An extract date cannot be postulated.

The Mass in C contains a number of long solo arias, and the the score suggests that Leopold Mozart could reckon with the participation of at least two highly accomplished singers: a soprano and a tenor. The arias culminate in pauses indicating the start of solo cadenzas: in one instance there are no fewer than three.

But despite the presence of such innovations the work clearly belongs to the transitional period between the late baroque and early classicism, and harks back to the stylized emotions and musical symbolism of the baroque era.

Leopold's attitude to Latin prosody was not as strict as his son's. His approach was very much in the spirit of the 18th-century motet, with priority given to the working out of thematic material.

Very characteristic of him are the occasional homely touches: he was not ashamed of sharing the popular taste and indeed considered it as necessary part of music.

The CD was released by Koch-Records International, P 1982/1989, (ADD). 313028 H1.

Soprano: Arleen Augér
Alto: Gabriele Schreckenbach
Tenor: Horst Laubenthal
Baritone: Barry McDaniel

Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin, Domkapelle Berlin, Conductor: Roland Bader

Track List:

1. Kyrie (4'29")
2. Gloria (17'03")
3. Credo (16'39")
4. Sanctus (1'54")
5. Benedictus (5'12")
6. Agnus Dei (6'35")
   

Voices from Heaven

This is a beautiful anthology of sacred liturgical music. Chung coordinates his forces in larger choral pieces with power and vertical balance. Contributions by Cecilia Bartoli find the mezzo in top form, and Bryn Terfel brings charismatic presence to “Pie Jesu” from the Fauré Requiem. Also included are the interminable "Song for Athene" by John Taverner and a great performance by Andrea Bocelli in Eric Levi's hymn for the world, "I Believe".

The CD was released by Deutsche Grammophon, 1998, (DDD). Deutsche Grammophon 459720-2.

Soprano: Cecilia Bartoli
Tenor: Andrea Bocelli
Bass Baritone: Bryn Terfel

Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Conductor: Myung-Whun Chung

Track List:

1. I Believe - Andrea Bocelli (4'10")
2. Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod) - Cecilia Bartoli (2'42")
3. Va Pensiero Sull'ali Dorate (From Nabucco/Verdi) (4'51")
4. Deus In Adjutorium (from Vespro della Beata (Monteverdi) (1'37")
5. Qui Sedes Ad Dexteram Patris (from Bach/Mass BWV 232) - Cecilia Bartoli (5'05")
6. Laudate Dominum (from Vesperae Solemnes De Confessore - Mozart) - Cecilia Bartoli
7. Lacrimosa (from Requiem/Mozart) (3'41")
8. Stimmt an die Seiten (from Die Schöpfung/Haydn) (1'49")
9. Sanctus (from Mass D 950/Schubert) (3'18")
10. Locus Iste (Bruckner) (3'44")
11. Pie Jesu (from Requiem op.48/Fauré) - Cecilia Bartoli (3'42")
12. Libera Me (from Requiem op.48/Fauré) - Bryn Terfel (4'47")
13. Sanctus (from Requiem op.09/Duruflé) (2'37")
14. Gloria In Excelsis (from Gloria/Poulenc) (2'49)
15. Song for Athene (John Taverner) /7'36")
16. I Believe (Instrumental) (4'10")
    

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) - Mass No 2 in G Minor/Giuseppe Geremia (1732-1814) - Missa Pro Defunctis, Tantum Ergo

Mass in G Minor by Vincenzo Bellini: Bellini's sacred works do not seem few, or of little interest, as there are more than thirty such compositions, thanks to the unique conditions in which the Catanese composer worked. Not only was his contact with sacred music early and long-lasting, as he was the son and relative of musicians employed by the Church, but the inevitable spirit of emulation made it so that his first efforts were destined for this area.

While the Mass in A Major, in all probability composed in 1821 and published in 1843 by Ricordi, has been familiar for a long time, the G Minor Mass was made accessible by Francesco Pastura, who, in 1959, edited a reconstruction based on autographs held in Catania and Naples, published by Edizioni Drago de Magenta.

According to a Catanese scholar's supposition, the second Mass ought to be associated with the occasion when Bellini, after his diploma was brilliantly signed and crowned with a performance of Adelson e Salvini in the small theatre of the Collego, "was invited to compose (...) for the church of Gragnano", where a cornerstone, unveiled in 1881, cites the composer's having led the work in July of 1825 for the Feast of the Madonnadel Carmine. In fact it is a Mass in which the persistent agogic of the Allegro, with varied shadings and with a unique exception is entirely appropriate for the Marian festivity.

Giuseppe Geremia has almost been completely forgotten, as there are but few references attesting to his existence (Catania, 1732 - Catania, 1814), yet a substantial musical output still speaks for him.

The Missa was most likely conceived for the Benedictine church where Geremia was engaged. The practice of the day used elements of the melodramatic style and of the Cantata to modify the form and character of Roman liturgy, becoming an alternating sequence of choruses, arias, duets and recitatives, supported by an instrumental accompaniment.

The year Tantum Ergo was composed is not known but the style adopted vy Geremia, which resembles early Classicism through its reference to the lesser sacred works of Haydn and Mozart, leads one to suppose that it was in all probability composed around 1770.

The CD was released by Scandinavian Classics, 2002, (DDD).

Soprano: Katia Ricciarelli
Alto: Francesca Aparo
Tenor: Salvatore Fisichella
Baritone: Furio Zanasi

Camerata Polifonica Siciliana, Conductor: Douglas Bostock

Track List: V. Bellini - Mass No 2 G Minor

1. Kyrie Eleison (5'08")
2. Gloria In Excelsis Deo (5'01")
3. Laudamus Te (%'53")
4. Domine Deus (6'34")
5. Qui Tollis (3'20")
6. Qui Sedes (5'33")
7. Quoniam, Cum Sancto Spiritu (4'22")

Track List: Giuseppe Geremia - Missa Pro Defunctis

8. Tantum Ergo (3'22")
9. Requiem - Kyrie (2'29")
10. Kyrie (0'42")
11. Dies Irae (0'42")
12. Quantus Tremor (1'03")
13. Mors Stupebit (1'31")
14. Quid Sum Miser (0'59")
15. Rex Tremendae (0'52")
16. Recordare (0'43")
17. Quaerens Me ((1'06")
18. Iuste Iudex (1'41")
19. Preces Meae (1'00")
20. Confutatis (0'42")
21. Oro Supplex (1'36")
22. Qua Resurget (0'36")
23. Huic Ergo (1'15")
24. Amen (1'24")

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) - A German Requiem (Ein Deutsches Requiem)

Johannes Brahms was born on 7th May 1833 in the Gängeviertel district of Hamburg, the son of a double-bass player and his wife, a seamstress seventeen years her husband's senior. It was intended that the boy should follow the father's trade and to this end he was taught the violin and cello, but his interest in the piano prevailed, enabling him to supplement the family income by playing the dockside taverns, while taking valuable lessons from Eduard Marxen.

In 1853 Brahms embarked on a concert tour with the Hunagrian violonist Eduard Reményi, during the course of which he visited Liszt in Weimar, to no effect, and struck up a friendship with the violinist Joseph Joachim, through whose agency he met the Schumanns, established now in Düsseldorf. The connection was an important one. Schumann was impressed enough by the composition that Brahms played to him to hail him as the long-awaited successor to Beethoven. Schumann's subsequent break-down in February 1854 and ensuing insanity brought Brahms back to Düsseldorf to help Clara Schumann and her young family. The relationship with Clara Schumann, one of the most distinguished pianists of the time, lasted until her death in 1896.

It was not until 1862, after a happy period that had brought him a temporary position at the court of Detmold as a conductor and piano teacher, that Brahms visited Vienna, giving concerts there and meeting the important critic Eduard Hanslick, who was to prove a doughty champion, pitting Brahms against Wagner and Liszt as a composer of abstract music, as opposed to the music-drama of Wagner and the symphonic poems of Liszt, with their extra-musical associations. Brahms finally took up permanent residence in Vienna in 1869, greeted by many as the real successor to Beethoven, particularly after the first of his four symphonies, and winning a similar position in popular esteem and similar tolerance for his notorious lack of tact. He dies in 1897.

There seems little doubt that the death of his mother in January 1865 was the immediate reason for the composition of A German Requiem, a large scale work that developed gradually over the years immediately following, but may well have been under consideration for some years. The second movement, at least, makes use of material from the slow Scherzo of the composer's rejected symphony of 1854 and 1855, the period of Schumann's final illness. Three of six completed movements were performed in Vienna in 1867 by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde under the direction of Johann Herbeck, but was badly received.

Brahms, as a North German Protestant, had chosen to make use of texts from the Lutheran Bible, drawing on the Old and New Testaments and on the Apocrypha, and such a work might well have been seemed strange to Catholic Vienna, even had it been properly rehearsed for the occasion.

Albert Dietrich, a young composer and conductor and a pupil of Schumann, whom Brahms had first met in Düsseldorf in 1853, sent a copy of the work to the organist and director of music of Bremen Cathedral, Karl Martin Reinthaler, who arranged the first performance of all six movements on Good Friday 1868, under the direction of the composer. On this occasion the Requiem was very successful and with the addition of a seventh movement, placed fifth in the whole work, became in the following years a valuable and esteemed element in choral repertoire both in Germany and abroad, establishing the wider reputation of Brahms.

The texts chosen avoid overt Christian reference, and the composer himself suggested in private correspondence that he would have liked to substitute the word "human" for "German" in the title. It has its roots above all in Bach and it has been suggested that Brahms may have drawn some inspiration from the much earlier work of Schütz. It is clearly vastly different in character from the liturgical Latin Requiem of Catholic tradition with its evocation of the Day Of Judgement and its prayers for mercy on the souls of the dead.


The CD was released by Naxos, 1993, (DDD). Naxos 8.550213.

Soprano: Miriam Gauci
Baritone: Eduard Tumagian

Slovak Philharmonic Choir, Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Alexander Rahbari

Track List:

1. Selig Sind, Die Da Leid Tragen (Blessed Are They That Mourn) (9'18")
2. Denn Alles Fleisch Ist Wie Gras (For All Flesh Is As Grass) (1456")
3. Herr, Lehre Mich Doch (Lord, Make Me To Know My End) (10'02")
4. Wie Lieblich Sind Deine Wohnungen (How Amiable Are Thy Tabernacles) (4'47")
5. Ihr Habt Nun Traurigkeit (And Ye Now Therefore Have Sorrow) (7'11")
6. Denn Wir Haben Hie Keine Bleibende Stadt (For Here Have We No Continuing City) (10'35")
7. Selig Sind Die Toten (Blessed Are The Dead) (10'08")
   

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) - Requiem (World Premiere Recording)

A towering figure of the English musical establishment, whilst remaining an Irishman in his blood and bones until his dying days, Stanford wrote more than thirty works for chorus and orchestra as well as seven symphonies.

The Requiem Mass was composed in memory of the painter Lord Leighton, a figure of enormous stature in English culture and society. Although in scale the Requiem almost equals that of the great Requiems of Berlioz and Verdi, the orchestral style is largely content with economical underpinning of the vocal forces and telling use of instrumental solos, a reminder that Stanford was a highly-regarded symphonist.

Charles Stanford was born in Dublin on 30th September 1852 as the son of a prosperous Irish lawyer. Both his parents were extremely musical. The young Charles learnt the piano and organ and gained a first-class classical grounding at what was said to be the finest school in Dublin.

In 1870 he went to Cambridge as a choral scholar, he took over the conductorship of the Cambridge University Musical Society when he was twenty. At the same time he became the Trinity College organist. He graduated in 1874 and spent much of that year and the next two studying in Germany, first (and unfruitfully) with Karl Reinecke in Leipzig and then, at the instigation of Joseph Joachim, in Berlin with Friedrich Kiel, a rare man and a rare master.

Stanford's career rapidly developed. In 1875 he received a commision for incidental music to his play Queen Mary; his First Symphony of 1976 gained second prize in a competition, a Festival Overture (1870) was a success at the 1877 Gloucester Three Choirs Festival. He took on the London Bach Choir in 1885; Oxford awarded him the honorary degree of Mus.D. in 1883, as did Cambridge in 1887, where he was also appointed Professor of Music in the same year. He was able to introduce several of the greatest composers to England for important performances.

Stanford died on 20th March 1924. His body was interred in Westminster Abbey under a stone inscribed A Great Musician, close to the remains of Purcell.

The Requiem is, in fact, a central work of Stanford's output and the scale of the Requiem equals that of the great Requiems of Berlioz and Verdi.



The DCD was released by Naxos, 2004, (DDD). Naxos 8.555201-02.

Soprano: Frances Lucey
Mezzo-Soprano: Colette McGahon
Tenor: Peter Kerr
Bass: Nigel Leeson-Williams

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Conductor: Adrian Leaper

Track List CD 1:

1. Introit: Adagio (8'03")
2. Kyrie: Allegro tranquillo ed espressivo (4'40")
3. Gradual: Larghetto (4'38")
4. Sequence - Dies Irae: Allegro moderato ma energico (30'21")
5. Offertorium: Allegro (11'37")

Track List CD 2:

Excerpts from the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera); Soprano: Virginia Kerr, Conductor: Colman Pearce

1. Sanctus: Allegro non troppo (10'07")
2. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna: Tempo di marcia funèbre (7'20")
3. Excerpts from the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (Opera): Overture (7'53")
4. Ballet Music No. 1 (7'20")
5. There's a Bower of Roses (5'05")
6. Ballet Music No. 2 (3'17")
   

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) - Mass in C Major

The Mass in C Major, opus 86, is the earliest of a number of works by Beethoven which are both vocal and symphonic. Written in 1807, just after "Fidelio" and several important instrumental and chamber music compositions, the Mass coincides with the period when Beethoven was working on the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies.

The first performance was on 13 September 1807 in Vienna, but it was afterwards seldom performed in concerts although Beethoven held the work in high regard. The credit for its real discovery is due to the later Romantics.

Like all compositions of the kind based on the Latin text of the Sunday Mass, strictly determined and consecrated by tradition, Beethoven's Mass is in five parts.

The Kyrie Eleison is distinguished by the spacious magnificence of its epic style. The alternation of the four soloists with the choir recalls certain features of antiphonal singing.

The Gloria In Excelsis pulsates with great impetus and brio; the various sections of the text dictate changes in the character, the tempo, and the dynamics of the music, resulting in a number of individual parts within the framework of the movement.

The Credo incarnates, in a certain sense, the vast amplitude and the splendour of the two preceding movements. It is the central and the largest movement of the entire work, for which reason its development is the most complex. It contains independent episodes which are different in character and mode of expression.

The Sanctus begins with a marvellously lyrical passage immediately followed by a more brilliant section.

The Benedictus, the text of which forms a separate section, re-introduces a more peaceful mood before the powerful and radiant finale.

The Agnus Dei is marked by its quality of inwardness and ends with the theme with which the work began, thus conferring a sense of unity on the whole.

The Mass in C has a clear and powerful structure. More than once there is a free use of elaborate polyphonic combinations evolving out of brilliant and massive chords. Beethoven thoroughly understood the expressiveness and the possibilities of the human voice he used extensively in his compositions. His interpretation of the text is profoundly philosophic and humanistic. Some of the features of this relatively early work prefigure the Missa Solemnis, the monumental contemporary of the Ninth Symphony.


The CD was released by harmonia mundi, CD 1988/P 1972, (AAD). HMA 190109.

Soprano: Emilija Markova
Alto: Lilijana Parachikova
Tenor: Christo Kamenev
Bass: Ivan Petrov

Choeurs Rodina, Orchestre Philharmonique d'Etat de Sofia, Conductor: Constantin Iliev

Track List:

1. Kyrie (4'50")
2. Gloria (9'51")
3. Credo (11'51")
4. Sanctus (12'53")
5. Agnus Dei (7'59")
   

Herbert Howells (1892-1983) - Stabat Mater (Premier Recording)

The Stabat Mater was completed and first performed in 1965. It was the last of a Holy Trinity of large-scale choral works - the others being Hymnus Paradisi and Missa Sabrinensis, the "Mass of the Severn" - which have established Howells as one of the great twentieth-century masters of vocal-instrumental polyphony.

Herbert Howells (1892-1983), composer of the rather unknown masterwork Stabat Mater

The Stabat Mater was his last major work. He was seventy-three, and though he went on producing anthems, motets and canticles for another thirteen years, he never exceeded the stylistic boundaries established by this most complex, concentrated and ambiguous piece.

Unusually for Howells, the inspiration of the Stabat Mater was partially visual: the Pietà of Michelangelo in St. Peter's, Rome (the published vocal score reproduces it on the front cover).
Howells also made a close study of other composer's settings of the text, particularly Stanford's, which he greatly admired (his copy of the vocal score is full of admiring annotations), and kept by him a number of translations.

The Stabat Mater has been rarely performed and is still almost unknown. On a first hearing it can sound unvaried, which could be the reason for its lack of popularity. This impression, however, is misleading: in fact within the obligatory oneness of mood Howells achieves a subtle range of treatments, and marvellous inventions abound:

1) The very opening - two-part counterpoint: austere and severe as can be
2) The start of the second movement, a via dolorosa, the cuius animan gementem: Howells makes the cellos and double basses tune down to the low B, so flodding the scene with a lurid light. The solo tenors enters for the first time "O quam tristis", as if introducing speaking for, even protecting the Mother and rebuking the turba.
3) Moments of supreme choral glory: no other composer makes quite these sounds, as in "vidit Jesum in tormentis" in the "Quis est homo"; at "fac me tecum vere flere" in the "Sancta Mater"; and, assai fervido, the great apotheosis of "Juxta crucem tecum stare" in the same movement.
4) The suggestions of great turbulence, gathering storm, threatening crowds, which lead up to that conflagration in the "Sancta Mater".
5) The crippled march - complete with desultory funeral chimes - which begets the finale. The end is resigned extinction of all light and life.

The Stabat Mater was composed against a background of political and personal stress and distress - the Russians' testing of nuclear weapons in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Kennedy assassination in 1963, Sir Winston Churchill's death and state funeral in 1965, the death of Howell's son 25 years ago, was also a powerful presence. All this surely played its part in exacerbating the tension and anguish which pervades the Stabat Mater. It is music of extraordinary desolation and dereliction of spirit. Yet, as all in Howells, agony is ecstacy: sense of loss on the one hand, Beatific Vision on the other.

The CD was released by Chandos, 1994, (DDD). Chandos Chan 9314.

Tenor: Neill Archer

London Symphony Chorus, Stephen Westrop (Chorus Master), The London Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky


Track List:

Stabat Mater for tenor solo, chorus & orchestra

1) Chorus: Stabat Mater Doloroisa (7'54")
2) Chorus, Semi-Chorus, Tenor Solo: Cuius Animan Gementem (10'02")
3) Chorus: Quis Est Homo ? (4'36")
4) Tenor Solo, Chorus: Eia, Mater (4'51")
5) Chorus, Tenor Solo: Sancta Mater (5'51")
6) Chorus, Tenor Solo: Fac Ut Portem (7'43")
7) Chorus: Tenor Solo, Semi-Chorus: Christe, Cum Sit Hunc Exire (10'19")