Carolina Ullrich, Elvira Bill, Patrick Grahl, Dominik Köninger, Wdr Radio Choir, Cologne Chamber Orchestra & Christoph Poppen Mozart: Complete Masses, Vol. 3 (2024)

The third volume of Mozart’s Masses focuses on works written in Salzburg when the composer was in his late teens and early twenties. The Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis , a bright celebratory work, is the only Mass setting without soloists that Mozart composed. The Missa Brevis in D major is a compact, economic setting conforming to the Archbishop’s dictates for shorter works. Its companion, the Missa Brevis in B flat major , though keenly responsive and beautiful, upset church musicians because it utilised a Parisian gavotte in the ‘Dona nobis pacem’ and ended Mozart’s employment on a provocative note.