Mozart & Martines - Masses of Masses

Soprano : Jessica Smith

Mezzo-Soprano : Lufuno Ndou

Tenor - Rory Carver

Bass-Baritone - Alistair Donaghue

Marianna Martines was an accomplished composer of oratorios, masses, sacred choral works and secular cantatas, as well as works for orchestra and keyboard. By 1761, Martines had composed three large masses and a motet for performance at Michaelerkirche, the imperial court church in her home city of Vienna, and was gaining a reputation further afield. Her home, the Altes Michaelerhaus, also housed the young composer Joseph Haydn (who taught her keyboard), the composer Nicolò Porpora (who taught her composition), and the famous imperial poet and opera librettist Metastasio (including the libretto of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito). In later life she hosted musical events, and performed duets with Haydn and Mozart, and it is believed that a number of Mozart’s four-hand piano duet sonatas were written for performance by Martines and Mozart.  We are honoured to be giving the UK première of her largest work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, the Quarta Messa of 1765, and we present this alongside two major sacred works from the pen of her colleague Mozart - his ever-popular Coronation Mass and the virtuosic motet, Exsultate, jubilate. We may even throw in one final work by Mozart to round the evening off … but we’ll leave that as a surprise.