Salzburg Festival 2012: Ouverture Spirituelle – Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Nikolaus Harnoncourt places the emphasis on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Ouverture Spirituelle, featuring sacred music within the Salzburg Festival, by choosing two seldom heard works by the Salzburg-born composer. Together with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and his Concentus Musicus Wien ensemble, the Mozart specialist conducts the Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento K. 243 and the Missa longa in C major K. 262 in the unique venue that is Salzburg Cathedral, a jewel of Baroque architecture. These two highly expressive works, written by the virtuoso composer when he was a mere twenty years old, were first performed in that very building. "Harnoncourt revealed the historic richness of Mozart's Litanei … in the finest colours and dynamic shading", wrote Die Kleine Zeitung. The Austrian baritone Florian Boesch and mezzosoprano Elisabeth von Magnus delivered their parts in especially sensitive manner. Jeremy Ovenden's vocal line is truly elegant coupled with that of the ambitious Spanish soprano Sylvia Schwatz. "Ovenden’s attractive, bright tenor … his rhythm, diction and easy flexibility of voice are exemplary", according to The Sunday Times. Rarely revealed tapestries from the prince-archbishop's treasury were hung in the cathedral especially for this concert, in order to give a better impression of how the works might have sounded in Mozart's day.