Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa "Dominicus", Vesperae de Dominica (1994)

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Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa "Dominicus", Vesperae de Dominica (1994)

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In l769, Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart, who had already excited great wonder as a child prodigy, turned into an adolescent youth. As of 1770, he assumed the name Wolfgang Amadeo, and this had symbolic value: henceforth, he regarded himself definitively as an artist in his own right. The experiences of his travels as a wunderkind now belonged to the past. In addition to the marvellous church music of his native Salzburg, he had got to know the major European music centres, and had been able to familiarize himself with both traditional styles and the latest stylistic trends.
All these experiences are reflected in the Mass in C major, the so-called “Dominicus Mass". The 13-year-old Mozart composed it for his friend Kajetan Ruppert Hagenauer, ten years his senior, who “often caught the odd fly for him and worked the bellows when he was playing the organ”. Hagenauer had entered the Benedictine abbey of St. Peter's in Salzburg as a novice in 1764. On l5th October 1769 he celebrated his first High Mass there in his new status as Father Dominicus. His young friend Wolfgang had agreed to write a Missa solemnis for the occasion. Mozart became familiar with the rules governing settings of the Mass at an early age, and his countless sacred works show his able command of the genre, He now had an excellent opportunity to introduce elements already tried and tested in other kinds of composition here - and the result was a large-scale and exceptionally interesting work in which two contrasting church music traditions are brought together. Several sections are still set in the older Salzburg style. fixed liturgical formulae are used here, e.g in the severe Benedictus, and Mozart displays brilliant composition technique at this early age in the extended fugues. Alongside these more traditional elements, however, it is impossible to ignore the dramatic and operatic features taken over from concerto composition; Mozart’s work on sonata form is reflected for instance in the Kyrie with its two contrasting subjects; and dance-like rhythms produce compietely new expressive values. The relationship between the vocal parts, especially those of the soloists, and the orchestra is entirely new here. whereas the liturgical text formed the centre of attention hitherto, making the solo and choral parts the true vehicles ot expression in a sacred composition, in the “Dominicus Mass” the orchestra takes over this responsibility for substantial parts of the work, and musical considerations come to play an increasing role in the form of the music. Those present at the first performance must have understood these innovations, for we have it on the authority of Father Dominicus that the work met with an enthusiastic reception.
Ten years later, in 1779, Mozart wrote the "Vesperae de Dominica”; neither the occasion for which the work was composed nor the date of the first performance is known. Major changes had taken place in Salzburg since the “Dominicus Mass” saw the light of day. The city had been under the rule ot a new Prince-Archbishop since 1772, and the new ruler was a zealous advocate of the Josephine court rescripts. He banned opulent church music, and forbade the use of trumpets and timpani. Salzburg's citizens were indignant, and some of these “outrages” were righted again in the course of time. But henceforth - thus Mozart in a letter to Padre Martini - church music was to last “no longer than three-quarters of an hour", and should as far as possible contain no long fugues.
It is quite conceivable that Mozart actually saw these restrictions as a productive challenge. For the young composer had not kept his eyes and ears open on his visits to Mannheim, Paris and Munich without good cause. In addition to the musical experience he had gleaned on his travels, he had been severely shaken by his mother's death, and on his return to Salzburg that he now hated so, he had to come to terms with a painful disappointment in love; his beloved Aloysia had got married. More mature both as an artist and personally, then, the new court and cathedral organist turned his attention anew to church music. The outcome included two small works, ihe "Vesparae de Dominica" K. 321 and the “Vesperae salennes de confessare” K. 339, which was written in 1780.
And here once again we encounter a form with fixed rules set by the text. A sequence of five psalms is concluded with the Virgin Mary's hymn of praise, the Magnificat, and each individual movement ends with the little doxology “Gloria Patri". In the exactly the same fashion as in the “Dominicus Mass”, Mozart once again works on two stylistic planes here; in K. 321, however, he manages to blend them with unique skill. Thus the “Laudate pueri" shows clearly that Mozart was aware of the musical tradition applying to the setting of this particular text; but his melodic formulas "speak" in the new expressive style. Although the array of instruments is limited, Mozart achieves astonishing concertante effects here, and a completely new interaction between the strings and the wind instruments.
The "Vesperae de Dominica" is a valid example of the Missa brevis, a form which Mozart was studyung closely in these years.

–Nele Anders

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Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa "Dominicus", Vesperae de Dominica (1994)

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