For players and listeners alike, the viola quintets of Mozart stand among the highest examples of chamber music. There are many who would not hesitate to name the most often heard of them (the C major and G minor) as representing some of the finest music in our heritage, in any category. The Fine Arts Quartet, which recorded these masterpieces for Vox, was a distinguished American ensemble, tracing its beginnings to the early 1940s in Chicago.

There can be no doubt – the Missa in C minor KV 427 by W.A.Mozart is a fascinating work. Simply calling it a “mass” is inaccurate; indeed, there is hardly more than a musical torso full of enigmas and problems – and brimming with magnificent music. What has survived is a fragment, in more ways than one. Mozart left the work unfinished; moreover parts of the autograph have been lost. Carus has now produced a new edition which is not only based upon a profound knowledge of Mozart’s music and the church music practice of that time, but also meets with the current demands of performance practice. Frieder Bernius is the co-editor of the sheet music edition; he and his Stuttgart Chamber Choir recorded this version. The album impresses with its outstanding musical quality, as well as with its quality of its recording. In addition to the new version of the mass, the release also contains a bonus track with the Credo fragment without completed instrumental parts. This album is a true discovery!