Rocamadour: W. A. Mozart's short Masses

Rocamadour: W. A. Mozart's short Masses

Over the course of eleven days in August 2020, the French town of Rocamadour hosted the fifteenth edition of Festival de Rocamadour, a music festival dedicated to sacred music from the classical, baroque, and romantic periods. On August 23, the French conductor Hervé Niquet led the ensemble Le Concert Spirituel, which he had personally founded in 1987, for a concert at the medieval Basilique Saint-Sauveur. Backbone of the concert are W. A. Mozart's two 'missae breves' written in Salzburg. These strikingly short masses are here performed with thematically related compositions by Joseph Haydn and his junior brother Michael interspersed. Firstly, we hear Mozart's Mass in F major, KV. 192, combined with two other compositions: after the Kyrie and Gloria from this Mass we hear the Church Sonata in C major, K.328 followed by the Mass's Credo, Sanctus and Benedictus. Preceding the Agnus, Le Concert Spirituel performs Michael Haydn's rarely played Ave verum, MH 654. In the second half of the concert, we hear Mozart's Mass in D, KV. 194, combined with two other compositions: following the Gloria of this Mass we hear the Church Sonata in A major, KV. 225, followed by the Credo of this Mass. Before rounding off the concert with the Mass's Agnus, Le Concert Spirituel performs Joseph Haydn's Adagio from his Concerto for keyboard instrument and orchestra in C major Hob. XVIII no. 8, followed by Mozart's Ave verum corpus, KV. 618.