Mozart’s Mass in C minor is as genius and as mysterious as his Requiem. We do not know why Mozart left his Mass unfinished. One thing is certain: he created it out of his innermost heartfelt need and not on commission, as was the case of so many of his other works. With a heartfelt passion too, the members of Il Giardino Armonico have been exploring the new face of early music for thirty years now.
The young Wolfgang fell in love with singer Constanze Weber. The love seemed unperturbed by her father’s lack of acceptance or the embarrassing fact that previously Mozart had adored Constanze’s sister. It was his fiancée’s disease that threatened the marriage prospect. It was then that Mozart vowed to compose a great mass if Constanze agreed to marry him. Thankfully Constanze recovered and the young couple could finally get married. The votive mass for Constanze’s recovery was excellent, and some fragments were performed in front of an audience still before the whole was completed. Constanze appeared in the premiere, as Mozart had composed the soprano part with her in mind, including some virtuosic arias, more suitable for an opera than for a mass. The deeply moving beauty of Et incarnatus est (fragment of Credo referring to the conception of Jesus) was inspired by the birth of Mozart’s first child. Why in the end did Mozart abandon work on his great mass, never to resume it? The reason could have been the death of Mozarts’ little son, besides there were more urgent commissions on his desk. Mozart’s defection from religious practice could have played a part too, as he never penned a mass again until Requiem. 
‘Early music requires a strong emotional commitment. The artists music live the music they perform,’ says Luca Pianca, lutenist and co-founder of Il Giardino Armonico. Wratislavia Cantans celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and the first Italian orchestra of historical instruments feasts its 30th anniversary. The 50 years of our festival show the evolution in thinking about early music. The Italian ensemble entered the historical scene quite late, when two young musicians from Milan established Il Giardino Armonico in 1985. It was then that we discovered that the music of distant past resembled the rapid pace of film editing: commotion and craze, extreme tempos and changes of dynamics, whispers and screams. Exaggerated? But can you play in a different way the mass by Mozart torn by conflicting emotions at the time of writing?