AVROTROS Christmas Concert: Mozart’s Coronation Mass

The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Groot Omroepkoor are performing the“Coronation Mass,”Mozart’s most famous mass. With its solo vocals, choir, and brass fanfares, the final movement of this radiant masterpiece could just as easily pass for a grand opera finale.Dona nobis pacem!(“Grant us peace!”)

“Please, not too long”
Mozart composed hisMass in C majorat the request of the Archbishop of Salzburg. The composer, then 23 years old, was reportedly dissatisfied with his patron, who had commissioned a Mass for Easter Sunday that was “above all, not to be too long.” Mozart rose to the challenge of creating a Mass of grand scale within those constraints. The enchanting soprano melody in theAgnus Deiwould later reappear in his operaLa Clemenza di Tito.

Royal nickname
The work was not given the name“Krönungsmesse”(Coronation Mass) until later, when it began to appear more frequently at coronation ceremonies. For example,the Mass in Cwas performed during the coronations of Leopold II, King of Bohemia, and Franz II of Bohemia, later Emperor Franz I of Austria. Haydn’sSymphony No. 85also received a royal nickname:‘La Reine,’because it was a favorite piece of Marie Antoinette.