Mozart: Masonic Music

Bringing together some of the diverse music that Mozart wrote for his and other Masonic lodges in Vienna is attractive even if it results in a rather short CD. Other related works, such as the pared-down K410 and 411 Adagios, and the Adagio and Fugue, K.546, might have been included – perhaps even the overture to The Magic Flute.Mozart became an Entered Apprentice, the lowest of the three levels, in 1784 and Schikaneder, who wrote the libretto for The Magic Flute, was a fellow Mason of a different lodge. The rumour that the composer was murdered by the brotherhood for revealing the secrets of the order in this opera has long been disproved. The number three was deeply significant for Masons and occurs throughout The Magic Flute - Three Ladies, Three Boys, three temples, and so forth. The opera's home key of E- flat, symbolic of virtue and nobility, was often used by Mozart in his Masonic music.Four Masonic cantatas are included: ‘Dir, Seele des Weltalls’, K. 429, ‘Die Maurerfreude’ “Sehen, wie dem starren Forscherauge”’, K.471, ‘Dir ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt’, K.619 and ‘Eine kleine Freimaurer-Kantate: Laut verkünde unsre Freude’, K.623. In addition, there are four short lieder for tenor with various chorus, orchestral/piano or organ accompaniment and a Hymn for chorus, ‘Lasst uns mit geschlungen Händen’, K.623a. The most familiar work is the orchestral ‘Mauerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music)’, K.477, which to my ears is played at a convincing tempo.The soloists are the tenor, Werner Krenn, b. 1943, and the baritone, Tom Krause, 1934-2013, who sings in the K.623 cantata, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by István Kertész, 1929-73, and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, chorus master, Arthur Oldham, with Georges Fischer accompanying on the piano/organ.Kertesz’s attention to the detail of the score and his concern for his fellow singers and players is first class, and yet again emphasizss the loss to the music world from his accidental death. Krenn’s singing is bright and sensitive and the piano and organ accompaniments of Fischer are well balanced. The remastered sound is bright and clean.K.429 offers praise to the sun, soul of the whole universe and provider of fruitfulness, warmth and light. Krenn fully captures the freshness and joy of the text and is wonderfully complemented by the male chorus who sing splendidly throughout the disc.K.623 celebrates the joy of belonging to the brotherhood and in this most complex of the works recorded here, orchestra and chorus open and close the work with great enthusiasm, no doubt expressing the feelings of acolytes and experienced members.The performances were recorded at the Kingsway Hall, London, in 1968. The brochure contains a disappointingly brief text on Mozart’s Masonic Music by H. C. Robbins Landon that focuses almost exclusively on the composer’s relationship with the Vienna Masonic lodges rather than the music [he suggests that Mozart persuaded Haydn to become a Mason and notes that, later, Leopold Mozart joined and was rapidly promoted ‘by special dispensation’ to Master Mason, the topmost of the three levels]. Since the latter represents one of the least recorded areas of Mozart’s work, the lack of information about the music is very disappointing. The German and English texts of the works are included.The front of the CD box shows a scene in an 18th-century Viennese Lodge painted by an unknown artist, presently in the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien.

Une découverte, la musique maçonnique du divin Mozart. A écouter et réécouter.

Mah, dovessi consigliarlo poprio no: si può reperire acquistando le relative opere complete.Certo, costa di più, ma si possiede la pienezza dei cd e non solo l'estratto.Unico vantaggio e che altri hanno fatto il lavoro per me.Un cosa che m'ha dato fastidio: il fatto che tutti e sette i cd odinati hanno lo sportello della custodia sfregiata da una o più righe, senza che avessi chiesto imballi ricondizionati.

The Mozart "Masonic Music" CD I ordered was exactly what I needed as I prepare my male chorus for a performance with a local symphony in the spring. It was shipped promptly and I recieved it in mint condition.

Wertvoll dank des frühverstorbenen Kertész, dem wir eine elektrisierende "Tito"-Aufnahme verdanken und der auch hier ein sensibler und zuverlässiger Mozart-Dirigent mit Feuer ist. So lohnt allein schon die "Maurerische Trauermusik" in ihrer unerbittlichen Ernsthaftigkeit in Kertesz durchsichtiger (Bassetthörner!) Lesart. Dagegen steht die groteske Aussprache des "London Symphony Chorus" (wohl keine Profis)... Krenn etwas blutarm, Krause kaum zu vernehmen.

MusiqueMaçonnique/W.A.Mozart/Istvan Kertesz/London Symph. Orch.W.A.Mozart entra en Maçonnerie à l’âge de 28 ans en 1784 à Vienne. Il accéda rapidement au rang de maître. Il n’est pas douteux que ce choix eut un retentissement sur les sept dernières années de sa vie. Il est à noter que c’est probablement Mozart qui convertit Joseph Haydn et son père Léopold Mozart à la franc-maçonnerie.Cantates et Lieder constituent l’essentiel de cette musique de circonstances, jouées dans les loges viennoises, qui exalte la fraternité humaine. La Marche Funèbre Maçonnique K 477 constitue le point d’orgue ce CD : puissante, hautement spirituelle et tragique, elle offre aux cordes et aux vents la possibilité d’un dialogue de l’au-delà. Sublimement douloureuse, mais aussi rayonnante, elle conduit vers les sommets d’une ferveur inégalée. Comme l’on dit certains musicologues, le Requiem est en gestation. Il est admis que c’est pour le Grand Architecte que Mozart a composé ses pages les plus belles.Un CD indispensable.