Mass In C Minor / Masonic Funeral Music K477

Mozart - Mass in C minor / Dessay, Gens, Lehtipuu, Pisaroni, Le Concert d'Astrée, Langrée Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), Louis Langree (Conductor), Le Concert d'Astree (Orchestra), Natalie Dessay (Performer), Veronique Gens (Performer), Topi Lehtipuu (Performer), Luca Pisaroni (Performer) - Like the Requiem, the C-Minor Mass was a much grander project than were any of the masses that Mozart composed for Salzburg, but only the Kyrie and Gloria were completed. The Kyrie alone is three times as long as a typical Salzburg Kyrie, and the Gloria, unlike the through-composed Salzburg Glorias, is divided, cantata style, into eight numbers, half of which are as long (or nearly so) as an entire Salzburg Gloria. For the remainder of the Mass, only four numbers survive, all fragmentary: Credo and "Et incarnatus est" from the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Benedictus. As does Langrée's performance. His choir is splendid, and his orchestra much the same. His soloists, too, are excellent, especially Natalie Dessay, singing the parts presumably composed for Constanze Mozart. Langrée approaches the work with unprecedented vigor. His timings in 12 of the 13 numbers in the Mass are faster-sometimes exceptionally so-than those of John Eliot Gardiner, all of whose timings are noticeably quicker than those of Herbert von Karajan. Gardiner, incidentally, uses the Schmidt reconstruction, somewhat modified, but without the extra numbers.