Vesperae solennes de Confessore K339

Laudate pueri: alla breve

Laudate Dominum: andante ma un poco sostenuto

Magnificat: adagio – allegro

During his time as court organist to the Archbishop of Salzburg Mozart was twice called upon to provide Vespers music for special occasions in the Cathedral. In both cases – the Vesperae solennes de Domenica K. 321 in 1779 and the Vesperae solennes de Confessore K.339 in 1780 – it was a matter of setting five psalm texts and the Magnificat, with the doxology (“Gloria Patri” etc ) seamlessly integrated at the end of each movement. Although, as their respective titles suggest, one was intended for a Sunday service (de Domenica) and the other for a saint’s day (de Confessore) he chose exactly the same psalms, Nos.109 to 113 in the Vulgate, and set them in much the same way with a brisk, often festive treatment of the first three psalms, a fugal Laudate pueri and a soprano solo Laudate Dominum. The scoring – for soloists, chorus and orchestra – is much the same except that in the later work the alto, tenor and bass voices of the chorus are more often doubled by trombones, giving it, in comparison with its more intimately scored companion, a distinctively solemn kind of sound. The major difference between the two, however, is that, brilliantly written for soprano though the Laudate Dominum of K.321 is, it cannot compare with the beauty of the solo line, enhanced by a modest bassoon obbligato and a magical choral entry, of the present setting of the same words.