SFLC’s Mozart selection is not another Requiem or Mass in C Minor but rather the Vesperae Sollenne de Confessore, K. 339, one of the composer’s last Salzburg works. While we know when and where this piece was composed, thanks to an inscription on the score reading “Salzburg 1780,” nobody has discovered exactly what liturgical celebration it was intended for, though several have tried. (One recent theory posits the Feast of St. Rupert, the primary saint of Salzburg.) This is a fine opportunity to hear a work too little performed, within or outside the liturgy. Pay special attention to the marvelously serene Laudate Dominum, guaranteed to inspire even the impious to ponder Mozart’s heavenly talent.
Schubert wrote the Mass in G at the tender age of 18, yet the piece languished in an unpublished state until several decades after the composer’s death. Its emergence into public light was a sordid affair, as another composer first tried to pass off the piece off as his own, ultimately winding up in prison for embezzlement. Don’t expect a whole lot of dazzling virtuosity here, but luxuriate instead in the exquisite moods of contemplation that Schubert seems to conjure so effortlessly.
Further mystery surrounds Felix Mendelssohn’s unfinished oratorio Christus, a sobriquet applied by his brother, Paul, to a posthumously published selection of fragmentary works. The surviving pieces, including two selections on SFLC’s program (“Say, Where Is He Born” and “There Shall a Star From Jacob”), add fodder to the long-standing debate surrounding Mendelssohn’s religious affiliations and his efforts to reconcile his Jewish heritage with a prevailing Christian culture. One scholar recently suggested that with Christus Mendelssohn sought to advocate a premise of universal guilt for the death of Christ, issuing a pointed challenge to contemporary anti-Semitist currents. This is heady stuff for a summertime concert, but well worth pondering while you enjoy the exultant melodies and exquisite lyricism of these finely wrought miniatures.
More familiar to many audiences, though equally compelling in terms of theological significance, will be selections from Mendelssohn’s monumental oratorio Elijah, itself often seen as evoking parallels between this Old Testament prophet and the New Testament figure of Jesus. As a final treat, the rarely heard Kyrie in D Minor should prove a striking contrast, showcasing Mendelssohn in gloomier spirits with its thick choral textures and solemn atmosphere.