GRAND MASS IN C MINOR

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Exultate's full-orchestral recording of The Grand Mass in C Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a splendid recording available on CD. This performance includes a festival Chorus and Orchestra of over 120 musicians and soloists Anna Haagenson (soprano I), Karen Wilkerson (soprano II), Russ Carlson (tenor), and Waynne Hornicke (baritone).

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Mozart began work on the Mass in C Minor in the summer of 1782. To fulfill a promise to Constanze he would perform a Mass in her honor when he took her to Salzburg to meet his father, who had not given the marriage his blessing. The Mass was rehearsed on August 23rd, and performed in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter on August 26, 1783 with Constanze herself singing one of the solo soprano parts. The next performance did not occur until April 3rd of 1901.

The score was published from incomplete materials in 1840. The Kyrie, Gloria, most of the Sanctus, including the Osanna and the Benedictus, were finished, but regarding the Credo we find only Credo in unum Deum and Et incarnatus est. In this performance the Credo ends after the text, "...Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and wasmade man." The remaining portion of the second article as well as the entire third article of the creed are missing.

On this recording we have chosen to present the incomplete mass. The Agnus Dei is a reworking of the Kyrie and was not in the original score. We include it here for two reasons. First, it rounds out the Mass by using a technique often used by composers, that of having the same or similar music at the beginning and the end of a composition and secondly, it makes the Mass somewhat more complete. By including an Agnus Dei we at least have portions of all five parts of the Mass. There is evidence that Mozart intended to finish the work but his life ended less than 10 years later and the composition remained unfinished alongside the also unfinished Requiem Mass.

The Mass in C Minor is the most ambitious and elaborate of Mozart¹s church works, planned on a scale comparable to that of Bach's Mass in B minor. At the very time Mozart was writing it, he was also studying the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. It is evident in the counterpoint and basic structure of this mass that Mozart was impressed with the works of Bach and was influenced by his hearing of Bach's compositional style. Because of that the Grand Mass is the single most elaborate, complex and difficult of all the Mozart vocal works. In this one composition we see a different Mozart, a supreme composer who is most mature and most accomplished in his craft of placing notes on paper. What a wonderful treasure it is!

(Notes by conductor, Thomas D. Rossin)

The Soloists

Anna Haagenson, soprano, is a performer and teacher based in Vancouver, Washington. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including the national winner of the Mother of the Year Vocal Competition and the Schubert Club of Minnesota Scholarship Competition. She has studied at the HageGården Music Center in Sweden with Swedish opera singer, Håkan Hagegård. She has also coached under Martin Issep, Lucy Shelton and Thomas Houser. Anna received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Colorado and the Master of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, where she appeared as Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff. Other roles include Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites by Francis Poulenc and Kate in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. Recently she was heard in the Minnesota Opera productions of Verdi's Aida and Otello, and Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and as the soprano soloist in the Minnesota Chorale's presentation of Mendelssohns Elijah. Other solo repertoire includes Brahms' German Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, and Poulenc's Gloria. She is the soprano soloist on Exultate's recording of the Brahms Requiem.

Karen Wilkerson, mezzo-soprano, holds her Bachelor of Arts in Music degree from California State University and a Masters in Music from Westminster Choir College. Wilkerson is active as a professional singer, conductor and teacher. As a recitalist she has appeared most recently in Princeton, NJ, Valparaiso, IN, Philadelphia and in Minneapolis. Her extensive choral background includes performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. Wilkerson performed for four years with the Dale Warland Singers, and three seasons with the Minnesota Opera. She currently studies with Mary Kay Schmidt of Minneapolis, and Janet Bookspan of New York City. She also continues her studies with Rita Patane in Milano, Italy. Wilkerson teaches at Northwestern College, St. Paul and is on the music staff of St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Roseville.

Russ Carlson, tenor, serves as Director of Music at Lake Nokomis Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. He received his formal musical education at Golden Valley Lutheran College and Augsburg College in Minneapolis earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education. As a singer he has performed with the Minnesota Singer's Theatre and Glass Theatre. He made his professional opera debut with Opera St. Paul¹s production of Puccini's La Boheme. While singing with the Minnesota Chorale, he was a soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has sung solos in the Mozart Requiem, Bach's Magnificat in D, Theodore Dubois' The Seven Last Words of Christ, Saint-Saens' Christmas Oratorio and Schubert's Mass in G. He is presently tenor section leader and assistant conductor of Exultate and can be heard as soloist on several Exultate recordings.

Waynne Hornicke, bass, is a graduate of Augsburg College, Minneapolios where he sang with the Augsburg Choir under Leland B. Sateren. He has sung with the Bach Society, Minnesota Chorale and the Dale Warland Singers. He is currently a bass soloist with the Augsburg Centennial Singers and at Grace-Trinity Community Church, Edina, Minnesota. His principal voice teachers were Ed Eklof and Leroy Lehr.

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