This 2023 release is the second in a complete series of
Mozart
's masses from the
Cologne Chamber Orchestra
and
Cologne Radio Choir
under conductor
Christoph Poppen
. Such a series is perhaps unprecedented and surely welcome, for settings of the Catholic mass were a major occupation of
during the first part of his career, and his settings are generally under-recorded. That is not true, however, of the main attraction here, the
Mass in C minor, K. 427 ("Great")
, probably
's single most-often performed piece of choral music outside of the
Requiem in D minor
. Unfinished (a completion of the existing movements by
Franz Beyer
is used here), it is a big, dramatic work that adds a thick layer of Italian operatic writing onto
's basic Austrian Catholic cathedral style. The intended beneficiary was
's wife,
Constanze
, for whom the soprano part was composed. Performances of the work often stand or fall on readings of this, and soprano
Katharina Konradi
is equal to the task. She is ably backed by
Poppen
, who delivers rich, dramatic readings of the choral movements right from the start. The
C minor mass
is paired with the
Missa Brevis in C major, K. 258 ("Spaur")
, a typical example of
's sunny Salzburg style, and
and the musicians and singers effectively shift gears. The sound -- especially in the
Missa Brevis
-- is somewhat muddy; it is odd that
Naxos
, after recording all kinds of works in churches that really don't belong there, avoids a church setting that might have brought a brighter sound, but this does not detract materially from a fine pair of performances that whet one's appetite for further releases in
's series. ~ James Manheim