34th Mozart Festival in Warsaw
The Royal Castle in Warsaw
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Der Messias KV 572
Oratorio by G.F. Händel arranged by W.A. Mozart
(German translation by C. D. Ebeling and F. G. Klopstock)
Joanna Kędzior | soprano
Zuzanna Nalewajek | alto
Karol Kozłowski | tenor
Sebastian Szumski | bass
Choir of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Chorus Master | Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz
Period Instrument Ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense (MACV)
Conductor | Bartosz Michałowski
The Messiah According to Mozart
If Van Gogh Had Painted the Mona Lisa
Everyone wants to have their own Messiah. The history of the oratorio, composed in just 24 days during the summer of 1741, is full of constant metamorphoses. Even before its premiere in Dublin in 1742, the composer made adjustments, dictated by the ensemble available to him. The later history of the work is a marathon of revisions and adaptations. Handel took part in 36 performances of the oratorio, but it never sounded exactly as originally written. The last time the composer heard The Messiah was on April 6, 1759—just eight days before his death. The work wasn’t published in print until 1767. From that point on, The Messiah became a true laboratory, with each generation contributing its own ideas. One of the bold contributors was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who first heard the oratorio in London in either 1764 or 1765, and then again in Mannheim in 1777.
A master revising a master? Mozart accepted a commission from Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Earlier, he had experimented with another Handel work—Acis and Galatea. Mozart’s version of The Messiah was performed on March 6, 1789, at the palace of Count Johann Esterházy in Vienna. It was also played during the Christmas season at the winter palace of Prince Schwarzenberg. Mozart’s arrangement was intended solely for Vienna performances. There were no plans to publish it (which explains why it only appeared posthumously, in 1803).
What was the original lacking? Perhaps only a fashionable flair to satisfy the taste of the Viennese audience—and their love of wind instruments, especially clarinets. Mozart reworked the original, slightly shortening the score, introducing a second soprano (instead of an alto), and swapping out some of the solo instruments. Messiah became Der Messias (KV 572), as the composer used a German translation prepared by Christoph Daniel Ebeling and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock—for none other than Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The son of Johann Sebastian performed his Messiah in Hamburg in 1775.
Conductor Marc Minkowski, who led The Messiah at Mozartwoche in Salzburg in January 2020, expressed his admiration for… Mozart: “He threw in a new light: as if Van Gogh had painted the Mona Lisa; like a painter adding his own colors with different harmonies. It’s a transformation of the universe, and yet—it’s still The Messiah.”
Jacek Hawryluk