Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Peter Neumann, Collegium Cartusianum :: Mozart: Dominicus Mass K 66/ Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis K 167

I Stand in Utter Awe

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 01/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you want to know why Mozart is generally considered a genius, then ? please! ? listen to this recording of his Dominicus Mass K. 66, a forty-minute showpiece he wrote when he was merely 13 years old! Although musicologists have found fault and some of the first listeners were horrified at Mozart?s ?worldly? style, personally I can only stand in utter awe at this achievement: a full-scale mass with soloists, four-part choir and full orchestra ? and music that is clever, delightful in the extreme and so wonderfully expressive. The other mass on this disc, ?Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis? K. 167 was written only four years later, this time in accordance with the strict regime of Archbishop Colloredo, and is no less astounding: it is written for choir and orchestra without soloists, but the lack of solo episodes is nowhere felt, the music irradiates nothing but heart-felt enthusiasm and joy.



And, fortunately, Peter Neumann?s recording reflects this in every way. I had occasion to question his concept in a review of a previous disc (Mozart?s ?Coronation Mass?), but here everything is absolutely perfect (with the one proviso that you are willing to accept female sopranos instead of boy trebles). The recording was made at the old West German national radio (?Deutschlandfunk?) in Cologne in 1989, some months after the ?Coronation Mass? disc, and it appears that Neumann had second thoughts about some issues, for here he has a larger orchestra with twelve violins and four violas (missing from the previous disc on ?historical? grounds, here restored with the remark that in Salzburg no difference was made between violinists and viola-players in announcements so that there may well have been violas in Mozart?s Salzburg orchestra), three celli, two double basses, pairs of flutes, oboes and horns, a bassoon, four trumpets, three trombones, timpani and organ. Neumann also engaged three new soloists: Barbara Schlick, whose voice here is absolutely radiant, Markus Schäfer, tenor, who does not really get much of an opportunity to shine, and Klaus Mertens, a brilliant bass-baritone whose voice is always a pleasure to hear. Ulla Groenewold, alto, is the only one of the soloists to remain on the team, and she, too, delivers a sparkling performance, enhanced by the fact that this time round the engineers have put the soloists where they belong, in the forefront of proceedings instead of in church choir lofts. The result is a pure, clear sound that had my heart rejoicing: just listen to that glorious choir, those magnificent timpani, those awesome trumpets and trombones! This is a recording to be listened to again and again.

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