Muffat : Grande Messe Festive pour Salzbourg

In 1690, the powerful Archbishop of Salzburg, Primate of Germania and Prince of a sovereign state respected throughout Europe, was renowned for the extraordinary religious ceremonies of his Cathedral. He had just celebrated the city's 1100th anniversary with great pomp and circumstance, and the musicians who composed for him were famous throughout Europe: first and foremost, Heinrich Biber, but also the brilliant Georg Muffat (1653-1704), who dedicated a splendid Missa In Labore Requies, intended to call upon all the musical forces of the cathedral, to the prelate. Born in Savoie, Muffat was a true European: he studied music in Paris with Lully, was an organist in Sélestat in Alsace, but his main positions were in Vienna, Prague, and Salzburg with a period in Rome! He was a man of fusion of Italian, French and German styles, using his acknowledged musical verve.
Catholic Salzburg had to show its splendour in the face of the Protestant states that surrounded it: so, an exceptional musical ceremony for a grand sacred service for Whitsun of 1690 had to be created. The pomp deployed by Muffat leaves breathless: the music is written for twenty-four different voices, and has to be distributed in space in five choirs. The impressive effects of trumpets and percussion, marking the solemnity of the ceremony, resounded splendidly in the cathedral, responding to the angelic choirs as well as to the sacred acclamations, to build an incomparable musical monument. Since Salzburg Cathedral has four balconies, it is conceivable that the mass was sung from the balconies and the main choir in the nave. Two choirs of vocal soloists, doubled in the tutti, then a string choir, respond to a choir of two cornets and three trombones, and a choir of five trumpets and timpani.
This "immense" music is obviously almost never performed, as it requires a great number of musicians, preparation time, precision on the part of the musicians and the conductor, but above all a setting to welcome and magnify this music “set in space”. The Chapelle Royale allows for this splendid setting, and the performers brought together for this recording and concert project: Le Banquet Céleste (Damien Guillon) and La Guilde des Mercenaires (Adrien Mabire), take up the challenge of performing this work of exceptional proportions!

This performance will be recorded for the Château de Versailles Spectacles label

PROGRAMME

Johann Stadlmayr (1575 - 1648)
Sonata à treize

Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1644 - 1704)
Vesperae Longiores ac Breviores : “Dixit Dominus”

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1623 - 1680)
Sonata duodecima à sept

Georg Muffat (1653 - 1704)
Missa Laborae Requies à vingt-quatre