Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678 Hofkapelle Stuttgart & Frieder Bernius

• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678:
• 1 Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678: I. Kyrie 06:13
• 2 Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678: II. Gloria 14:11
• 3 Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678: III. Credo 09:34
• 4 Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678: IV. Sanctus 02:58
• 5 Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678: V. Benedictus 04:37
• 6 Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678: VI. Agnus Dei 06:00
• Total Runtime 43:33

Info for Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678

In his Mass in A flat, Schubert set himself the great task of composing a “Missa solemnis”, as he later entitled the work. As with the Mass he wrote in the last year of his life, he severed the bonds imposed by tradition on the four earlier works of 1814-16. His highest ambition for the effect it might have on the world (there is evidence of his early intention to dedicate it to the Emperor Franz and his consort) is linked in the A flat major Mass with a deeply personal confession, the formulation of his own faith, of “true devotion”, as he put it in 1825. There can scarcely be another work upon which Schubert worked so long, so intensively and with such revision: begun in November 1819, the Mass was not finished until September 1822; given one performance at the end of that year and possibly another in 1823 in the Alt-Lerchenfeld parish church in Vienna, it was by no means “finished business”, being modified by Schubert by 1825.

Johanna Winkel, soprano
Elvira Bill, alto
Florian Sievers, tenor
Arttu Kataja, bass
Kammerchor Stuttgart
Hofkapelle Stuttgart
Frieder Bernius, conductor

Frieder Bernius
Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire.

Booklet for Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678