Near the end of his career in Salzburg and looking to new horizons, Mozart produced several large choral-orchestral works for his hated employer, the Archbishop Colloredo. All are packed with the overflowing melodic invention that characterizes the contemporaneous opera Idomeneo, but are restricted to dimensions modest enough to satisfy Colloredo, another of those people who thought Mozart used too many notes. The "Coronation" Mass, K. 317 is the most popular of these works, but the Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339, ...
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Near the end of his career in Salzburg and looking to new horizons, Mozart produced several large choral-orchestral works for his hated employer, the Archbishop Colloredo. All are packed with the overflowing melodic invention that characterizes the contemporaneous opera Idomeneo, but are restricted to dimensions modest enough to satisfy Colloredo, another of those people who thought Mozart used too many notes. The "Coronation" Mass, K. 317 is the most popular of these works, but the Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339, and Missa solemnis, K. 337, both weightier pieces with brass parts, are only slightly less often heard. Numerous good choices are available; Kiri Te Kanawa was born to sing the "Laudate Dominum" section of the Vesperae solennes, as she does in a London Symphony Orchestra recording. But this one stands out for the combination of period instruments from the Cologne group Collegium Cartusianum and what might be called period sound -- the indefatigable engineers of the MDG label have...
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