Salzburg mishandling Mozart (part II)

Mozart’s Great Mass in C-Minor is annually performed as part of the Salzburg Festival. The venue is Salzburg’s Church of St. Peter’s Abbey, the church, for which Mozart had composed the Mass.

 

Mozart never completed this work, no Agnus Dei and parts of the Credo are missing. Over the years, various attempts were made to complete the Mass. What Salzburg did this year, however, is an outrage. As complementary pieces, they interspersed the original movements of the Great Mass with various Bruckner as well as some Schubert sequences.  

 

It was beautifully sung and played but the injection of alien material was artistically scandalous. Elated and exhilarated by Mozart, one’s attention flopped when the music moved to Bruckner or Schubert.

 

The putti, in front of my chair, however, seemed to take it in their stride.