Schubert: Mass In E Flat Major; Mozart / Mackerras, Kuhmeier, Mayer, Et Al

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SCHUBERT Mass No. 6. MOZART Vesperae solennes de confessore Charles Mackerras, cond; Genia Kühmeier (sop); Christa Mayer (mez); Timothy Robinson (ten); Oliver Ringelhahn (ten); Matthew Rose (bs); Dresden St Op Ch; Staatskapelle Dresden CARUS 83.249 (76:45 Text and Translation) Live: Dresden 4/26/2008


Schubert’s last Mass is a marvel from start to finish and is regularly recorded, though few are the performances that enter the pantheon. Charles Mackerras’s first encounter with the Dresden Orchestra, recorded live in the Frauenkirche, joins my two favorites, by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Wolfgang Sawallisch, and offers a generous complement, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore , which is not often heard in its entirety. The Staatskapelle is in great form, using narrow-bore trombones that offer a lighter sound than today’s instruments. But it is the hand of Sir Charles who knows exactly how the music should go that makes this performance special. The tempos are just right, the awe perfectly inspired, the transitions perfectly managed, so that the listener, too, is caught up in the wonder that is Schubert’s E?-Major Mass. The soloists are angelic in their major contribution, “Et incarnatus est.” Mackerras does not linger, his timing about the same as Harnoncourt, 51 minutes. The Mozart is composed of six psalms, five of which are choral with solo interventions; the sixth is that wonderful solo for soprano and choir, “Laudate Dominum,” which occasionally turns up on recital discs of sacred music. Genia Kühmeier floats the long lines of her solo while enthusiastically joining her colleagues in the remaining sections. A must.


FANFARE: Joel Kasow


Product Description:


  • Catalog Number: CV83249


  • UPC: 409350832499


  • Label: Carus


  • Composer: Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


  • Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Dresden Staatskapelle


  • Performer: Genia Kühmeier, Matthew Rose, Oliver Ringelhahn, Timothy Robinson