*** Anniversaries of composers are generally gladly commemorated in the classical music world. The three-hundredth anniversary of Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) shows that it is not always the rule. Above all, famous and popular composers enjoy that extra attention. And yet: occasionally, an anniversary is also an opportunity to put a lesser-known composer in the spotlight.
Is Leopold Mozart then lesser known? Yes indeed, at least as a composer, because he is mainly highlighted as the father who made his prodigy Wolfgang into a superstar. Even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself hardly concerned himself with his father's legacy. Yet he did have respect for the educational journey he owed to his father, although he regularly distanced himself from him. But after composing his own Grosse Messe in c-moll (KV 427), and four years before Leopold's death, he nonetheless humbly referred to his father's church music and lamented that it was grossly neglected.
Therefore a commendable initiative that the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie – based in Augsburg, Leopold's birthplace – considers the Missa Solemnis worthy of a recording. They have in Alessandro de Marchi a conductor who is keen to champion lesser-known works. He conducts the chamber orchestra with refinement in tone according to each section of the mass and brings the sacred music vibrantly yet with nuance. A restrained Gratias agimus tibi and a powerful Hosanna in excelsis, to mention but these as examples. The choir Das Vokalprojekt offers an intimate-religious sound. Just listen to the Et incarnatus est. And among the solo quartet only the tenor is somewhat out of place, with a rather wooden voice and little supple legato. The soprano and alto provide a beautiful alternation in the final verse Miserere nobis of the Gratias agimus tibi. They sing their solo passages beautifully, as does the bass.
This recording thus rightly retrieves this cantata-like mass by Leopold Mozart from the 'collective oblivion', as Sylvie Kürsten calls it in her liner notes to the cd. It is a fitting tribute to the 300-year-old neglected father-composer of Wolfgang Amadé.
- WHAT: Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) – Missa Solemnis
- WHO: Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie and Das Vokalprojekt conducted by Alessandro de Marchi – Arianna Venditelli (soprano) – Sophie Rennert (alto) – Patrick Grahl (tenor) – Ludwig Mittelhammer (bass)
- RELEASE: BR-Klassik - AP205