2019 April 26, Friday, 19.00

In a letter to his father Leopold dated 4 January 1783, Mozart mentioned a vow he had made to write a mass to his then fiancée Constanze Weber. He also added that the work, which he invested with all his expectations, is almost completed. Mozart kept his promise and on 26 October 1783 conducted his Mass in the Church of St. Peter’s Abbey (since the work was incomplete, he spliced in movements from his earlier masses for the premiere). Constanze, then the composer’s wife, was one of the sopranos at its premiere.

Mozart worked on Great Mass in C minor in Vienna in 1782 and 1783 after his marriage when he moved to Vienna from Salzburg. The work is scored for two sopranos, tenor, bass, choir and orchestra. It remained unfinished. According to Mozart scholars, the opus is a mixture of various styles featuring baroque polyphony and transparent homophonic texture, as well as sacred and secular music vocabularies.

The work embodies pomp and solemnity associated with the Salzburg traditions of the time as well as Viennese musical environment. The Mass shows the influence of Händel and Bach, whose music Mozart was studying while visiting Sunday concerts at Gottfried van Swieten’s home in Vienna.

Tonight the performing forces feature renowned performers: the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, VilniusState Choir and young but acclaimed soloists. The conductor Adrija Čepaitė regularly collaborates with Lithuanian orchestras, in particular the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and also various European orchestras.