Mozart's incomplete C Minor Mass is surely one of the greatest might have beens of the musical repertoire. However, as with Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony it is completely satisfying even in the slightly truncated form that we have, lasting an hour.
This concert began with a great rarity by the increasingly familiar Clara Schumann - Three Mixed Choruses, op19, first heard at Dresden in 1848. Unaccompanied and highly melodic, they were conducted to excellent effect by the Chorus's normal Director, Stephen Doughty. The centrepiece, with Thomas Søndergård now in charge, was far more familiar - Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, with the RSNO's principal, Christopher Hart, as soloist. Even with his brief encore, a transcription of Debussy's 'Girl with the Flaxen Hair', the first part of the concert seemed brief (under half an hour). but the superb Mozart more than made up for that.
The impressively mighty contribution of chorus and orchestra really did make the work sound almost on a par with the more familiar Requiem. The four soloists were uniformly excellent, though Andreas Landin had little to do, singing only in the final Benedictus in which the quartet blended nicely. His main assignment with the orchestra was earlier this month, a memorable rendering of the Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel.
The other three had more to do, especially the ladies, each opening with difficult arias - wide-ranging coloratura laced with awkward intervals. Brenda Rae was last heard here as Zerbinetta during Covid, and those verbal acrobatics came in useful. Scottish mezzo Katie Coventry was by no means left in the shade, and their voices blended well in their duet. The Uruguayan tenor, another debutant, also sounded fine in the subsequent trio as well as the finale.
In all, this rapturously received performance (in Edinburgh) made it hard to understand the work's comparative neglect.
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