Mozart Grande Messa
The orchestra and choir of the Fondazione Arena di Verona perform at the city's Teatro Filarmonico for a rendition of Mozart Grande Messa, under the conductorship of Enrico Onofri. As its title suggests, the concert programme includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Mass or Great Mass in C minor, KV1 427, KV6 417a. Scored for two sopranos, a tenor, a bass, a chorus and an orchestra, this work is Mozart’s most celebrated mass arrangement. Prior to it, audiences will be delighted with a rendition of Symphony No. 39 in C Major, MH 478, by Michael Haydn. With such extraordinary works, concert-goers can expect an exceptional evening of musical entertainment from start to finish.
The younger brother of Joseph, Michael Haydn wrote his 39th symphonic work in 1788. In fact, the prolific composer set about writing a total of six symphonies that year, the 39th being the last of those. Over the course of an intense seven-week period in Salzburg, all of the symphonies in the set were completed. Some musicologists have noted certain similarities between Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, K. 551, and Haydn's symphony especially in the use of woven melodies as fugues. Like all of the other symphonies Haydn wrote at the time, the 39th is arranged in three movements with no minuet. Given the work's structure, musical influences and contemporaneous nature with Mozart, it is an excellent choice to open a concert programme that concludes with one of music's true masters in a sacred piece of great beauty.
Composed from 1782 to 1783, the premiere of Mozart's Great Mass took place at the Church of St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg, Austria on 26 October 1783. His wife, Constanze, performed at the premiere. Mozart's musical interpretation of the mass is solemn, reflecting the musical conventions of his time. However, it is also a forward-thinking piece which hints at the more symphonic interpretations of sacred music that would soon follow, notably by Joseph Haydn. The work is split into distinct sections, the Kyrie, a Gloria, a Credo, a Sanctus, which is arranged to include a large choir, and a Benedictus. Mozart's Great Mass is an incomplete score with parts that are missing or only available in fragments. Modern performances typically reconstruct these missing sections.
Verona's Teatro Filarmonico is a superb venue to enjoy two fine examples of late 18th-century compositions from two renowned maestros, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Michael Haydn.