Vesperae de Dominica, K. 321
Salzburg, 1779

***

Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339
Solemn Vespers of the Confessor
Salzburg, 1780

Performing forces for both works:
Soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists
Chorus (SATB)
Orchestra: 2 trumpets, timpani, 3 trombones, violins 1 & 2, cello, bass, organ
(ad libitum bassoon doubling continuo)

Program Notes by Martin Pearlman

Mozart's two settings of the Vespers date from 1779 and 1780, during the brief period when he served as court organist to the Archbishop of Salzburg.  The Vesperae de Dominica is the earlier of the two and the one less frequently heard.  Each work consists of five psalm settings followed by a magnificat.  Because these movements could be separated by portions of the service, they are pieces that can stand alone, if needed, resulting in a somewhat less unified structure for the work as a whole.  Most of the movements, particularly in the earlier work, are in similar quick tempos, and they are in a variety keys that can sometimes feel unrelated (although each work does begin and end in C major). 

Stylistically Mozart mixes learned counterpoint in the "old church style" (stile antico) with a more modern homophonic and melodic style.  In both works, that contrast is most striking at the moment when he shifts from the severe counterpoint of the Laudate pueri to the Laudate Dominum which follows.  In the Vesperae de Dominica, the first of these movements has a four-voice canon and other counterpoint and is followed by a florid soprano aria.  In the Vesperae solennes de confessore, the first of these two movements begins with a fugue on a subject that Mozart used again years later in his Requiem.  That is then followed by the famous, sublimely beautiful Laudate Dominum for soprano and chorus, a piece that was so popular in the nineteenth century that it suffered all kinds of popular arrangements for different combinations of instruments, much like the Pachelbel Canon in our time. 

The make-up of the orchestra in both these Vespers reflects typical church practices of the time: three trombones double the lower three parts of the chorus, ad libitum bassoons double the continuo bass line, and there are no violas.

Mozart evidently thought well enough of both of his Vespers settings that, after he moved to Vienna, he asked his father to send copies of them, so that he could show them to Baron van Swieten.  Van Swieten, who was then introducing Mozart to contrapuntal works of Bach and Handel, would no doubt have appreciated seeing the sections written in the old style.

Boston Baroque Performances

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