Durham Choral Society - Mozart Mass in C Minor and Piano Concerto Number 21

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Join Durham Choral Society and Orchestra for their performance of what is considered to be one of Mozart’s greatest works, his Mass in C minor. Piano Concerto No,21 will be performed by Alison Gill.

Mozart's Piano Concertos are some of the composer's greatest works, and No.21 is a particularly popular choice. Written in 1785, six years before his death, he gave the premiere performance himself at the National Court Theatre in Vienna. Mozart wrote his Mass in C Minor between 1782 and 1783 shortly after his marriage but left it unfinished. His wife, Constanze, performed the “Et incarnatus est” at its first performance in Salzburg in October 1783 in front of her new father and sister
in law whom she had yet to meet! 

The performance took place in the church of St Peter’s Abbey as part of a Roman Catholic Mass. Nannerl, Mozart’s sister, noted in her diary that the performers of the Mass were the entire “Hofmusik”, musicians employed at the court of Prince-Archbishop Count Hieronymous von Colleredo and so her brother’s former colleagues.

The work embodies pomp and solemnity associated with the Salzburg traditions of the time, but it also anticipates the symphonic masses of Joseph Haydn in its solo-choral learning. The influence of Bach and Handel, whose music Mozart was studying at the time, is also evident. Durham Choral Society will perform the esteemed Peters Edition.