A Major Instance of Recycling
Bob Worth
Bob Worth
In 1783, just after he married Constanze (against his father's wishes), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was working on a large Mass setting. He took his manuscript from Vienna back to his hometown of Salzburg, and produced a church performance of the incomplete work--the C minor Mass, also called the Great Mass--featuring Constanze as a soprano soloist. It is not known whether he filled in the missing portions with sections from his earlier masses, with music by other composers, or whether they were simply omitted.
Several years later, Mozart reused the completed movements from the Kyrie and the Gloria of the still-incomplete Great Mass to create a cantata called 'Davidde penitente', with libretto probably by his opera collaborator Lorenzo da Ponte. Two new virtuosic solo movements were added to the preëxisting material to complete the cantata, a work commissioned by the Vienna Society of Composers.
We'll take a close look at this little-known work by the great master, we'll explore its sources in the Great Mass and its Italian libretto, and we'll listen to an excellent recording by La Petite Bande, directed by Sigiswald Kuijken.
Several years later, Mozart reused the completed movements from the Kyrie and the Gloria of the still-incomplete Great Mass to create a cantata called 'Davidde penitente', with libretto probably by his opera collaborator Lorenzo da Ponte. Two new virtuosic solo movements were added to the preëxisting material to complete the cantata, a work commissioned by the Vienna Society of Composers.
We'll take a close look at this little-known work by the great master, we'll explore its sources in the Great Mass and its Italian libretto, and we'll listen to an excellent recording by La Petite Bande, directed by Sigiswald Kuijken.