Organization

Singer

Soprano

Sylvia Schwartz

Tenor

Jeremy Ovenden

Salzburger Festspiele

Others

Arnold Schoenberg Chor

Orchestra

Concentus Musicus Vienna

Overture spiritual - Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Mozart

Salzburg

Austria

Missa longa in C major, K. 262 - Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento, K. 243.

For this concert, the historical tapestries were hung in the church in order to achieve the same acoustics that Mozart found when he performed his masses there.

With the so-called "Missa longa" from 1776, Mozart obviously wanted to demonstrate his contrapuntal virtuosity. This applies even more to the Litany of the Sacrament, K. 243, from the same year, with its rich use of concertante solo instruments and the downright breakneck polyphony of the final fugue. According to Salzburg tradition, it was intended for the forty-hour prayer that began on Palm Sunday.

The Austrian musician Nikolaus Harnoncourt, born in 1929, came from a noble family in Luxembourg and Lorraine. He studied cello and initially worked as a cellist with the Wiener Symphoniker. But historical performance practice interested him more than orchestral service: in 1953 he founded the ensemble "Concentus Musicus Wien" with his wife Alice and dealt intensively with early music.

Harnoncourt, a pioneer of original sound, showed the amazed audience how exciting works of the Renaissance and Baroque can sound. Over the years he expanded his repertoire and devoted himself to the podium of "modern" orchestras, not only to classical symphonies but also to the Viennese waltz and stage works by Johann Strauss, Richard Wagner,

He taught at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and wrote several fundamental writings on music. In 2012 he was made an officer in the French Legion of Honor and awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society London. In 2014 he received the Echo Klassik for his life's work.

"Maestro Harnoncourt is the favorite star of those who don't really like stars. One believes the phrase about serving at work, on genius. His enthusiasm and joy of discovery delight and inspire" (FAZ 14.7.98)

On December 5, 2015, one day before his 86th birthday, Nikolaus Harnoncourt announced that he was retiring; he passed away on March 5, 2016.

Overture spiritual - Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Mozart: Concert Various

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