8.573605
Listen to an excerpt Gloria in excelsis Deo
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797–1848)
Johann Simon MAYR (1763–1845)
Messa di Gloria and Credo in D
Siri Karoline Thornhill • Marie-Sophie Pollak, Sopranos
Marie-Sande Papenmeyer, Alto • Mark Adler, Tenor
Martin Berner, Bass • Simon Mayr Choir
Members of the Bavarian State Opera Chorus
Concerto de Bassus • Theona Gubba-Chkheidze, Concertmaster • Franz Hauk
While the German tradition observes a strict distinction between sacred and secular styles, the 19th-century Italian Mass can feel more akin to attending an operatic performance. Donizetti’s church music, consisting of at least a hundred items, has hardly been explored. Individual movements were often later recycled by the composer, in cantata-like fashion, to form a complete Mass, and it is this ad hoc technique that Franz Hauk has used to create a new work, the Messa di Gloria and Credo in D. This includes an expansive Qui sedes with its violin solo written for the famous violinist-composer Pietro Rovelli, and is completed with movements by Johann Simon Mayr from whom Donizetti learned his compositional craft in settings of sacred texts.
Franz Hauk| Simon Mayr Choir| Bavarian State Opera Chorus| Concerto de Bassus
   About Franz Hauk
Born in Neuburg an der Donau in 1955, Franz Hauk studied church and school music, with piano and organ, at the Munich Musikhochschule and in Salzburg. In 1988 he took his doctorate with a thesis on church music in Munich at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Since 1982 he has served as organist at Ingolstadt Minster, and since 1995 also as choirmaster. He has given concerts in Europe and the United States and made a number of recordings. Since October 2002 he has taught in the historical performance and church music department of the Munich Music and Theatre Hochschule. He founded the Simon Mayr Choir in 2003.
    About Simon Mayr Choir
The Simon Mayr Choir was established by Franz Hauk in 2003. The repertoire of the choir includes works from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. A special stress is laid on authentic historical performance and on the promotion of music by Simon Mayr at the highest cultural level. Members of the choir are vocal students from the Munich Hochschule für Music und Theater and singers selected from Ingolstadt and the region.
    About the Bavarian State
    Opera Chorus
The Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera can count on a long and distinguished history, sharing with the Bavarian State Orchestra and Bavarian State Ballet a repertoire of some 350 opera and ballet performances annually at the Munich National Theatre, the Prince Regent Theatre and the Cuvilliés Theatre.
    About the Concerto de Bassus
Concerto de Bassus is an international ensemble engaging young musicians in historical performances of music of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Many members of the ensemble are outstanding students or graduates of the Munich Music and Theatre Hochschule, raised in the specific Munich string tradition, or with wind instruments constructed on similarly historical principles.
8.573419-20
“The performance has style and panache, and the recording is first-rate.”
– Gramophone
8.660367-68
“The undulating melodies and the colourful orchestration are attractive and expressive.”
– Limelight Magazine
8.573236
“First rate recording, with excellent solo and choir singing, and the orchestra is likewise good.”
– Pizzicato ★★★★★
8.573360
“The six singers attack the music with enthusiasm, taking on the formidable vocal challenges with ease.”
– American Record Guide