Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Mass in C minor, K427
Arleen Auger, Lynne Dawson (sopranos)
John Mark Ainsley (tenor)
David Thomas (bass)
Winchester Cathedral Choir
Winchester College Quiristers
The Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
rec. 1988, St Jude’s on the Hill, Hampstead, London
DECCA 425 528-2 [51:25]
This is one of the latest additions to Presto Classical’s range of manufacture-on-demand discs, a winning enterprise where they resurrect in physical copy some classic recordings that might not otherwise be available to those of us who prefer CDs to streaming or downloads. It’s an excellent product, identical in every respect to Decca’s original, down to the labelling of the CD and the excellent booklet.
The performance itself is rather middling, though. Like the proverbial curate’s egg, parts of it are excellent, most especially the playing of the orchestra. Using the AAM’s fine period instruments, the string sound is wiry yet lithe, the opening having a particularly fine sense of potential energy to it. Those same violins then descend beautifully for the introduction to the “Christe”, and there is a lovely trip to their playing at “Domine Deus Sabaoth.” The brass are majestic, there is a lovely edge to the timps, adding great colour to the end of the Kyrie, and the winds sounds really delightful in “Et incarnatus est.”
Furthermore, the performance has a couple of points of special interest. Chief among these is that it uses Richard Maunder’s edition of the score. Oddly, nowhere does the booklet make this explicit, but Maunder alludes to this in his (very thorough) booklet essay. The changes are slight, mostly consisting of an added instrument here or there, most obviously trumpets and drums at the start of the Credo; so the use of his edition is more likely to enrich your enjoyment rather than make you sit up in surprise.
The other point of interest is Hogwood’s choirs, which use boy trebles instead of adult women sopranos. It makes a big difference, but it takes a bit of tuning-in to. For one thing, the boys sound unmistakably English, enunciating their vowels in a distinctively plummy way with, dare I say it, a slightly hooty tone in the opening Kyrie. However, either I got used to it or they stopped doing it - either way it stopped bothering me - because by the “Gratias” I had stopped noticing. No such qualms about the men, who are excellently rich and full throughout.
If there’s a problem, then, it comes in Hogwood himself. He shapes the big paragraphs convincingly enough, but only rarely did I feel that he had a sufficient handle on the music’s energy. The opening of the Gloria just happens - it doesn’t explode - and other big moments like the Sanctus just don’t blaze, though, thankfully, its concluding fugues do. Even the “Qui tollis” lacks bite, so that it contains none of the edge it really needs, and the only part of the Gloria that really take flight is its final fugue, sung with admirable precision and directed with vigour. The opening of the Credo is taken disconcertingly quickly, to my ears, accentuated by the added trumpets and drums.
The soloists are fine, too, though Arleen Auger’s soprano is a bit of an acquired taste here. Normally I’m a big fan of hers, but she sounds rather matronly in the “Christe”, even in her huge upward leap. It goes without saying that she is completely in command of the notes, and her approach suits the “Et incarnatus est” a little better, but she left me longing for the crystalline purity of Barbara Bonney or Carolyn Sampson in the principal soprano part. Lynne Dawson’s slightly darker tone makes for a good contrast, as do the two men in their (much briefer) contributions. They blend together well when required in quartet.
The admirably full booklet contains Maunder’s musicological essay, Latin text and translations, and even a list of the make and date of all the instruments played by the orchestra. But even with this, it’s only a qualified welcome from me. I suspect this performance will appeal mostly to those who have a particular love for Auger’s voice, or who are completely committed to having boys' voices in the choir. For the rest of us, there’s more to enjoy in classic accounts from Colin Davis and Neville Marriner or, more recently, Herreweghe and McCreesh.
Simon Thompson
