CONCERT PROGRAMME
W. A. Mozart. Great Mass in C minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (1756–1791) Great Mass in C minor is one of the greatest masterpieces from the entire creative legacy of the composer, and one of the most famous sacred music works in the world. W. A. Mozart promised to compose the Great Mass as gratitude for the recovery of his fiancée Constanze Weber. He began writing the work in the summer of 1782 in Vienna, shortly before their wedding. W. A. Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, was dissatisfied with his son's choice of fiancée, although in his letters to his father Wolfgang did not spare Constanze praise: "She is not ugly, but she is not beautiful either. Her whole beauty consists of two small black eyes and a beautiful figure. She is not witty, but she has enough understanding to fulfil all her duties as a wife and mother... and the best heart in the world. I love her and she loves me with all her heart. Tell me, could I wish for a better wife?”, – W. A. Mozart wrote. However, his father was not convinced. For obvious reasons, his letters to his son were later destroyed by Constanze. The couple married in August 1782, but the Mass, which W. A. Mozart had promised to write, remained unfinished... The reasons for this are still unknown.
Another mystery is related to the Mass: why did W. A. Mozart, having been released from his job at the Salzburg manor house and moved to Vienna, where church music was not in demand, set about writing a work of this genre? The most logical explanation, which is generally confirmed by the score, is the great discovery that W. A. Mozart made before starting to write the Mass – late Baroque music, which until then had been considered hopelessly outdated. In the Great Mass, W. A. Mozart combined two aspects – the pomp and solemnity characteristic of Salzburg of that period and the influence of the Baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. The premiere of the work took place in October 1783 in Salzburg, in the presence of the composer himself – he was visiting his hometown because he wanted to introduce his wife to his father and sister.