The seventeen church sonatas presented here all dated back to the Salzburg period, between 1772 and 1780. They are pieces designed to be performed during the Mass between the reading of the Epistle and of the Gospel and, therefore, the most correct word would be “ Sonatas all’Epistola ”: Mozart himself confirms this in a letter dated September 1776 and addressed to Father Giovanni Battista Martini. The young Mozart was at that time at the service of Archbishop Hieronimus de Colloredo who showed a certain openness on a political and religious level; he implemented, however, a policy of cuts and cost reductions in the context of the city’s musical institutions, among other things by closing the spaces reserved for musical theater. In truth the archbishop left a fair amount of freedom to Mozart as he believed that he was an excellent cultural ambassador of the Salzburg court but, Mozart’s discontent with the Salzburg environment grew more and more and the efforts for an alternative location increased. The sonatas are written in a single movement always in “Allegro” with the only exception of the “Andantino” of the first Sonata KV 67 - and stylistically they are similar to the characteristic eighteenth-century chamber style. It is interesting to observe the function of the organ in the arc of the compositional parable of the church sonatas: in the nine sonatas - from KV 67 to 225 - the organ performs the function of mere basso continuo in full compliance with eighteenth-century conventions, but already in KV 244, we can see Mozart’s attempt to give something more to the keyboard instrument by entrusting it with two short phrase conclusions with trill, while the strings accompany it with chords, and in KV 245, the organ has evident long and repeated notes that make it emerge from the flow of the basso continuo role. In the sonata KV 263 we see the enrichment of the sound palette with the addition of two trumpets in C: Mozart seeks new timbral solutions, conceives the church sonatas in a more orchestral than the chamber music one and in KV 278 he combines the traditional three-way writing with strings two oboes, two trumpets and timpani. The sonata KV 328 returns to the ensemble with only strings, but the organ’s writing is decidedly concertante and, in some cases, even preponderant over the strings themselves. Sonata KV 329 presents the largest ensemble of all: the strings are flanked by two oboes, two horns, two trumpets and timpani; Mozart plays a lot with the dialogue between oboes and violins but does not renounce to have the organ also intervene in some dialogue. It is worth noting that this sonata has the same orchestral structure as the Coronation Mass KV 317. The last sonata, KV 336, does not have winds and timpani, but needs two organs for its performance: one organ serves as a basso continuo, the other is a solo instrument. The sonata is presented as a concert piece of immediate communication that culminates with a cadence entrusted to the solo organ before the final closure. The sound was taken with all the musicians positioned in the large choir loft of the parish church of San Basilio in Regalbuto (EN); There are two valuable organ by Don Donato del Piano made after his masterpiece: the organ of the Abbey of San Nicola l ‘Arena in Catania. The organ was built in 1775 while the small one, also by Donato del Piano, and dates back to 1782 and it is currently located in a side of the large choir loft. The organs are contemporary to the composition of Mozart’s sonatas and the placement of all the musicians in the choir loft: if, on the one hand, it creates great complications that are merely practical for the execution, on the other hand, it restores the executive modality with which the sonatas were presented to archbishop of Salzburg.

Additional info about this CD
Recording 26-27 february 2021, San Basilio church, Regalbuto (EN) (Italy)
Booklet 16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment
Artist biography