The relatively unspectacular nature of the Spaur Mass may be one of the reasons for the fact that writers on music generally refer to it only as a peripheral work, a little sister of Mozart’s “important” church works. With regard to scoring, the Spaur Mass belongs to the category of the “missa solemnis,” but its brevity and its stylistic character belong far more to the “missa brevis.” Unlike the Organ Solo Mass KV 259, here the soloistic element – both instrumental and vocal – is clearly integrated to the background in favour of the development of the whole ensemble.
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Composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
| 1756-1791As the son of the deputy Kapellmeister to the Salzburg Prince-Archbishop, Mozart was constantly surrounded by church music in his youth. On his travels Mozart became familiar with Italian church music, and later in Vienna he studied the works of Bach and Handel. After moving to Vienna he was faced with the new challenges of composing opera and piano concertos, and significantly the “C Minor Mass” KV 427, the greatest sacred work of the first Vienna years, remained unfinished. The last period of his life again shows a change of direction to church music: Mozart successfully applied to succeed the terminally ill Leopold Hoffmann as Kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, but he was unable to take up the position as he died before Hoffmann. A gem such as the “Ave verum” KV 618 and the incomplete Requiem KV 626 give us an idea of what Mozart might have achieved as a composer of sacred music if he had taken up this important position. Personal details
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Editor
Bernhard Janz
| 1957
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Vocal score arranger
Volker Blumenthaler
| 1951
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