Werner's mass settings feature a brilliant and expressive style, demanding remarkable virtuosity from solo voices, especially the soprano, and from the violins.
Composer Biography
Gregor Joseph Werner (1693-1766) was the immediate predecessor to Joseph Haydn as Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court in Eisenstadt.
Recording & Production
This album is the third volume in a series documenting the works of Gregor Joseph Werner.
Compositional Technique
Werner's mass settings, like those on this album, compress the traditional text sections into shorter movements, adapting to the requirements of the Esterházy court chapel.
Compositional Technique
Werner, a student of Antonio Caldara (a Venetian master and vice Kapellmeister at the imperial court in Vienna), adopted Caldara's principle of concluding all five mass movements with a fugue.
Compositional Technique
Werner's mass settings demonstrate a vast stylistic range, from Renaissance vocal polyphony to early Romanticism, often surprising the listener, such as in the 'Crucifixus' of the Missa solemnis.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The titles of the two mass settings, 'Sunt bona mixta malis' ('The good are mixed with the bad') and 'Post nubila Phoebus' ('After the clouds the sun'), allude to the dualism of good and bad, or light and dark, in creation.
