E.T.A Hoffmann & Mozart

KNECHTSTEDEN EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL: OPENING CONCERT

6.00 pm Introductory talk in the monastery library

E. T. A. Hoffmann – a leading writer of the German Romantic period, a qualified lawyer and later a judge at the Prussian Court of Appeal – repeatedly attempted to earn a living as a composer. He demonstrated his mastery of the craft in over 70 compositions spanning almost every genre, although – despite some successes, particularly his enchanting opera *Undine* in Berlin in 1816 – he was denied recognition throughout his lifetime. Around a quarter of his oeuvre consists of sacred music, intended for use in the Catholic rite. This includes his *Miserere* in B flat minor from 1809. However, this mystical work was neither performed nor printed during Hoffmann’s lifetime.

It is juxtaposed by the Rheinische Kantorei and Concerto Köln the radiant cantata *Davide Penitente*, penned by his alter ego Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Hoffmann revered above all else. The Vienna Society of Composers, a pension fund for the widows and orphans of professional musicians, requested a choral work by Mozart for a charity concert in March 1785. This was the perfect opportunity to set the opulent music of his *Great Mass in C minor* – composed for Salzburg in 1783 but left unfinished – to new lyrics and perform it in Vienna as the cantata *Davide Penitente *.