Pure Mozart: Under the baton of Klaas Stok the NDR Vokalensemble, the Kammerakademie Potsdam and a line-up of outstanding soloists perform Mozart’s cantata »Davide penitente«, together with a number of other sacred pieces by the famous Salzburg composer. The background to this fine and rousing cantata shows once more that there are good reasons for Mozart’s reputation as both a genius and quite a joker: when the Vienna Musicians’ Society, a kind of pension fund for widows and orphans, asked him to write something new for a charity concert, he agreed under the condition that he be granted membership. As a father, he wanted to be sure that his wife and child would be provided for. But the composition he supplied wasn’t new at all! To save time and effort, Mozart had cleverly set his unfinished Great Mass in C minor to a different text. After all, no one in Vienna knew the mass, which Mozart simply renamed »Davide penitente« and turned into a cantata.
Is the result better than the original? After all, Mozart wrote two more bravura arias for the excellent Viennese soloists, both of them new compositions! In this way, the Great Mass in C minor with the title »Davide penitente« is actually even more opulent in style than the already impressive original, which is regarded today as one of the highlights of church music.
Performers
NDR Vokalensemble
Kammerakademie Potsdam
Liv Redpath soprano
Anna Devin soprano
Alexandra Hebart mezzo-soprano
Sebastian Kohlhepp tenor
Andreas Pruys bass
director Klaas Stok
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Kyrie in D minor, KV 368a
Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music) in C minor, KV 479a
Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento, KV 243
– Interval –
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Davide penitente / Cantata for Three Vocal Soloists, Choir and Orchestra, KV 469
