Mannheim School

Mannheim school refers to both the orchestral techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of Mannheim in the latter half of the 18th century as well as the group of composers who wrote such music for the orchestra of Mannheim and others....

DG and the Freiburger Barockorchester, one of the world’s foremost period-instrument orchestras, launch a new creative partnership with an album of works associated with the celebrated Mannheim court orchestra. Mozart’s Mannheim couples little-known gems by Cannabich, Holzbauer, Vogler and others with works written by Mozart during his formative visit to Mannheim in the late 1770s.

DG and the Freiburger Barockorchester, one of the world’s foremost period-instrument orchestras, launch a new creative partnership with an album of works associated with the celebrated Mannheim court orchestra. Mozart’s Mannheim couples little-known gems by Cannabich, Holzbauer, Vogler and others with works written by Mozart during his formative visit to Mannheim in the late 1770s.

Ernst Eichner was a composer of the so-called Mannheim School who fell into obscurity as the Romantics discarded the light music of the Classical era, and whose music has until now been overlooked in the general late eighteenth century revival – probably because the focus on music of the period has shifted from Mannheim to Vienna. But of course the influence of the Mannheim composers was continent-wide; Mozart's symphonies and keyboard sonatas from the late 1770s, for example, can't be understood without it. The chief musical attraction in Mannheim was the court orchestra maintained by the Elector of the Palatinate, outsized to match the Elector's mega-palace (at the end of World War II it was about the only thing standing).

Let’s put aside the fact that the music on this disc has virtually nothing to do with what the title suggests–works written or performed by Mozart in Mannheim–and just enjoy what really is here: a huge mass by the distinguished director of the renowned Mannheim court orchestra (1753-78), and three Mozart choruses refitted with sacred texts to rescue them from the obscurity assured by the failure of the play, Thamos, King of Egypt, for which they originally were written. The mass, at 35 minutes, is a substantial work, with an opening that sounds more like an opera overture than a prelude to a sacred service. However, this reflects what then had become known as the “Mannheim style”, taking full advantage of the dramatic possibilities of a gigantic and very well-trained orchestra and a near-theatrical tradition for presentation of church music.