Written in 1782, Mozart's Mass in C minor – although incomplete – ranks as one of the outstanding Mass settings in European music history. The very recent reconstruction/completion of the Mass by Clemens Kemme in the spring of 2018 confines itself to the original sources, avoiding any arbitrary additions. The work was recorded in this critically acclaimed version for the Bayerischer Rundfunk during the summer of 2018, and conducted by Howard Arman. This CD is thus the first recording of the definitive version of this new and intelligently edited reconstruction of Mozart's Mass in C minor. An introduction to the work is also included, enabling this masterpiece to be approached from new perspectives.

In Vienna in the summer of 1782, Mozart started writing a new Mass despite having apparently received no commission to do so. On 4 August 1782 he married Constanze Mozart, and from his correspondence it appears that he had made himself a promise to “have a newly-composed mass performed in Salzburg if he brought her there as his wife.” The work may have been performed on 26 October 1783 in St Peter's Church in Salzburg, with Constanze as the soprano soloist; concrete evidence of such a performance is however lacking. Nevertheless, the Mass can probably be seen as a kind of votive offering for Constanze. The fact that the work was not completed may be due to the church music reforms implemented by the Emperor Joseph II, who preferred sacred music to be performed on a smaller scale. In 1785, Mozart eventually reworked the “Kyrie” and “Gloria” from the mass for his cantata Davide penitente.

Recorded between 30 July and 2 August 2018, this BR studio production features an ensemble of high-quality soloists: Christina Landshamer (soprano), Anke Vondung (mezzo-soprano), Steve Davislim (tenor) and Tobias Berndt (baritone). They are accompanied by the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the original-instrument Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, both conducted by Howard Arman.

The recording of Mozart's Mass in C minor is supplemented by the CD “Paths to Music”, a German-language introduction to the work by Markus Vanhoefer, spoken by Christian Baumann, Hans Jürgen Stockerl, Norman Hacker, Franziska Ball and Katja Schild.