Although there are only 40 years between the Mass No. 2 by Franz Schubert and the Cecilia Mass by Charles Gounod, these two orchestral masses from the 19th century could hardly be more different. While Schubert, at the tender age of only 18, put his work in the Missa brevis style of the time on paper in just one week, Gounod’s Cecilia Mass appears to have sprung from the setting of the Grand Opéra with the bright lamenting colors of the winds and harp.
The present recording was made in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence in March 2007 and shows Mariss Jansons, the former chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra who died in 2019, with a program full of heart and soul.
