Mozart: Mass in C Minor (KV427) & Schubert: German Stabat Mater (D383)

Mayfield Festival Choir and the Ripieno Players directed by Jeremy Summerly with soloists Sofia Kirwan-Baez, Aneska Diament, Francis Melville and Ed Birchinall

It’s hard to believe that Mozart rattled off the Great Mass in C Minor well before he was 30, and even more surprising that Schubert can have trotted out his impressively mature Stabat mater before he was 20. But in 1783 Mozart had a point to prove. The C-minor Mass was written to showcase the vocal prowess of Mozart’s new wife, Constanze. Mozart took Constanze to Salzburg as his Soprano soloist in order to parade her in front of his father and sister, as well as to goad the much-despised Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. It worked.