Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Missa brevissima

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returned to Salzburg in January 1779 from his journey to Paris, his luggage contained a single church music work - an unfinished Kyrie in E flat major (KV 296a) together with sketches for the Sanctus and Benedictus (KV 296c). In 2015, at the suggestion of the late Armin Kircher, Johann Simon Kreuzpointner set about compiling a five-movement setting of the mass from this material, also drawing on an unfinished cantata in E flat major (KV 429). For the orchestration and text underlay, Kreuzpointner took his cue from Mozart's church music works. With this edition Kreuzpointner, an experienced church musician and composer, created a convincing and stylistically assured work, which he tried out in several performances. The result is a concise setting of the mass, good to sing, which does not present any great difficulties for soloists, chorus, or orchestra. The title 'Missa brevissima' does not come from Mozart, but was chosen because of the brevity of the mass setting with its missing Credo. It also underlines the special status of this setting of the mass.