In the autumn of 2010 CORO will release a brand new recording of Mozart’s Mass in C minor featuring Harry Christophers in his role as Artistic Director and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society - America’s oldest continuously performing orchestra and chorus - with celebrated soloists, including Gillian Keith.
In September 2008 Harry Christophers was appointed Artistic Director of Boston’s internationally-acclaimed Handel and Haydn Society. Founded in 1815, the Society premiered key works by Handel, Bach and Haydn in America, has won a Grammy Award and also has a place in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Harry has worked with the Society since 2006 and his inaugural concert as Artistic Director was in December 2009 with Handel’s Messiah.
Mozart’s Mass in C minor is one of the best-known and most widely performed of the composer’s mass settings and is generally considered to be one of his greatest works and, as such, is often referred to as the ‘Great Mass’. Unlike many of his other works the Mass was not a commission and Mozart wrote it purely for his own pleasure. It is a remarkable union of musical vision and religious text and draws on Mozart’s skill for drama that made his operatic works such a phenomenal success.
The Mass in C minor rightly justifies its illustrious place in the pantheon of sacred choral music.
“Onstage, Christophers has what it takes to inspire the Society’s fine musicians.” The Wall Street Journal
