GREAT MASS IN C MINOR - Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Ekaterina Kuridze | soprano
Madina Abildina | soprano
Georg Poplutz | tenor
Schiersteiner Kantorei
Barockorchester La Vivezza
Clemens Bosselmann | conductor

Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor is perhaps his most ambitious composition in this genre. Inspired by his engagement with the great models of Bach and Handel, he composed it in Vienna shortly after his marriage to Constanze, who was to become the soloist in this very mass. The wonderful soprano aria Et incarnatus est is widely regarded as a gift to her.

The mass captivates through stylistic variety and splendor: lamentation singing, Italian influences, counterpoint, powerful double-choir invocations. Not long after, Mozart reworked it into his oratorio Davide penitente. No other mass would have been more suited to this transformation than this remarkably vivid and dramatic C Minor Mass. It became one of the most celebrated mass settings ever written.

Why this promising work ultimately remained unfinished remains unclear. Despite existing reconstruction attempts, we have chosen to perform the "pure" Mozart version and pair it with the G Minor Symphony, which suits its character perfectly.