Kolner Kammerchor, Collegium Cartusianium, Peter Neumann - Mozart: Salzburg Sacred Music (2005) [SACD]

After the Requiem, these works, along with the “Great” Mass, constitute most of the rest of Mozart’s essential liturgical music. Mozart wrote the works on this disc in 1779–80, just before he escaped Salzburg to seek his fortune in Vienna. Interestingly, this sensual music feels closer to the intimate operatic world of Così fan tutte than to the cathedral, particularly in the performances at hand.
The choir is small, light, and skewed to the top. Neumann leads fleet readings, rightly slowing down a bit for the darker or fugal passages, such as the beginning of the “Laudate pueri” in the Vespers. The soloists are not seriously taxed, and make a consistently good impression. The Missa, by the way, has wedged into it as a Graduale Mozart’s K 336 sonata for organ and orchestra.
MDG’s 5.1 surround recording provides a very precise spatial dimension, with detailed placement of the instruments, although the choir sounds more generalized and blended (which seems to be Neumann’s preference, judging from his earlier recordings of Schubert and Schütz). This is a very appealing disc.
James Reel