Mozart: Grosse Messe

Two masterpieces in C minor, each with a distinct voice, each a powerful expression of the human emotional landscape. “The most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man,” wrote E.M. Forster about the Fifth Symphony. But he might just as well have been speaking of Mozart’s Mass. Together with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the Vlaams Radiokoor brings that sublimity vividly to life.

Mozart’s Mass in C minor, or Great Mass, is among his most cherished choral works — and rightfully so. Though unfinished, it is majestic in scope, intense in expression, and full of structural surprises. It balances reverence with drama, echoing the voices of Bach and Handel, while offering moments of deep intimacy, especially in the soprano arias Mozart wrote for his wife Constanze.

In contrast, Beethoven’s Fifth resounds — music so deeply embedded in our collective memory that a single motif suffices. And as often happens with music we know too well, we begin to take it for granted — as listeners, musicians, lovers of the repertoire. Beethoven’s Fifth… again? But iconic works are not iconic by accident. The emotion, the energy, the sheer humanity in this music remain unmatched.