Mozart: Solemn Vespers

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Cat No: 8554158

Release Date: 02 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943415825

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: MOZART

Description
Wolfgang AmadeusMozart (1756-1791)Vespers and VesperPsalmsThe greater part of Mozart's church music, including his two settings ofVespers and his setting of the Vespers Dixit Dominus and Magnificat,was written for the Cathedral in Salzburg, where he, like his father,served in the musical establishment of the ruling Prince-?¡Archbishop, from 1772Hieronymus von Colloredo. Mozart had been born into a musical family inSalzburg in 1756 and was soon established as a child prodigy, his precocioustalents perceived and fostered by his father. The fact that Mozart died at therelatively early age of 35 makes his achievement even more amazing, onlyleaving regret at what might have followed.Mozart's early years brought a series of more or less extended concerttours, including performances at Versailles and at the English court. After1772 leave of absence for his father, Leopold Mozart, Deputy Kapellmeister tothe Archbishop of Salzburg, was only granted with considerable reluctance andthe composer, now in paid employment to the court, suffered similarrestrictions. In 1777 he resigned his position in search of greateropportunities that might be on offer in Mannheim or in Paris. After hismother's death in the latter city in 1778, he returned to Salzburg once more,now to be employed from 1779 as court organist. A visit to Munich in1781 for the performance of the opera Idomeneo, commissioned by theElector of Bavaria, was followed by a summons to join his patron in Vienna,where disagreement led to his dismissal. He now took up residence there,marrying imprudently, winning early success but existing in increasinglyprecarious independence until his death in 1791.Mozart's first liturgical composition is a setting of the Kyrie, writtenin Paris in 1766. His first Masses and sacred music for Salzburg began in 1769.The office of Vespers was often allowed relatively elaborate settings forperformance on the eve of a feast day and on the evening of the day itself. Theliturgical form includes a series of psalms and the canticle, the Magnificat.The present release opens with settings of the opening Vespers psalm, DixitDominus and of the final Magnificat, completed in July 1774. Theseare scored for trumpets and drums, three trombones, strings and organ, with soloistsand choir. Much of the first is homophonic, with occasional antiphonal writing.The final Gloria introduces a moment of solemnity, before thelively pace resumes in a contrapuntal final verse and Amen. The Magnificat isgenerally more contrapuntal in texture, offering graphic illustration of thewords and ending in a fugal et in saecula saeculorum.The two settings of Solemn Vespers that Mozart composed for Salzburg ayear apart from each other in 1779 and 1780 reflect the reformist tendencies ofArchbishop Colloredo, who had decreed that the settings of the words should beconcise and not structured operatically as arias and ensembles, as was thestyle in Neapolitan church music of the day. In a letter to Padre Martini in17
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