In his last period of employment in the Prince-Archbishop's establishment at Salzburg, Mozart wrote four quite substantial works for the church: two Masses and two settings of the Vespers psalms. This recording offers the better-known Mass, K317, and the Vespers setting that includes the beautiful ''Laudate Dominum'' for solo soprano. Unlike the Mass, which is conceived as a whole, the Vespers psalms are treated as a series of separate pieces: they begin and end in the same key, C major, but the intermediate pieces are in a variety of keys and indeed styles. Some are bustling Allegro choruses, with a little solo work, in the traditional manner of Austrian church music of the time, but the ''Laudate pueri'' is a severe D minor fugue, full of academic devices like answers by inversion, 'mirror' counterpoint and stretto while the ''Laudate Dominum'' is of course an exquisite melody with a soft-textured accompaniment (and only finally choral). All the psalms have the doxology, and Mozart sometimes takes the opportunity for the traditional recapitulatory musical pun at ''Sicut erat in principio'' (''As it was in the beginning''). It is an interesting work, not (the one movement apart) great Mozart, but a thoroughly professional piece, inventive and often appealing.
I have to say, however, that I do not find much to appeal on this record. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, directing a period-instrument orchestra (though not a period-voice choir: women rather than boys), seems to strain for effect. Listen to the very beginning of the Mass Kyrie, for example, to the exaggerated accents, or to the overdone dynamic contrasts a little later, to the violent accents again, in the Gloria, and the abrupt handling of the rhythms, or to the pushed Credo (which almost slows to a stop at the ''Et incarnatus'', where the violins are seemingly hidden in a remote corner). I could continue in this vein. It was with relief that I turned to the Cleobury/Argo recording from King's, which may not be perfect but has natural, flowing rhythms and sensible dynamics, with a warm account of the Agnus Dei from Margaret Marshall. Joan Rodgers, I should add, does it impressively too on the new disc, with a firm, pure line.
The same kinds of criticism apply equally to the Vespers music, done too with much exaggerated phrasing and dynamic moulding. I find the effect constantly artificial; and certainly there is no way that the music could have been performed in such a manner by the Salzburg chapel in Mozart's time (it presupposes a modern conductor and far more rehearsal than anyone imagined necessary in those days). Again, I turn with relief to the rival Philips version, made in 1971, distinguished by Colin Davis's healthy and spirited rhythms and by
the voice of a promising young New Zealand soprano, Kiri Te Kanawa, in the ''Laudate Dominum''—which, I should in fairness add, is again given a steady and shapely performance by Joan Rodgers. The recording faithfully reflects the extremism of the interpretation, which means that some of Mozart's detail is liable to escape even the watchful ear.'