Werner: Masses & Motets

An impressive continuation of the documentation of Gregor Joseph Werner's work, which shows Haydn's predecessor at the Esterházy court as a pioneer of further musical development. Gregor Joseph Werner was by no means a mere minor master in Haydn's immediate predecessor - this is already impressively shown by the previously released recordings. Now the newly acquired picture is further intensified: Werner, whose symphonies and instrumental concertos composed for the princely table have been lost, comes to the fore for posterity as a grand master of Latin musica sacra. With his sharpness of character and contrapuntal perfection, he proves to be not only a prerequisite and teacher for Joseph Haydn, the father of Viennese Classicism, but himself a gateway to this stylistic epoch. Werner appears to us today as the spiritual support of the rather profane Viennese Classicism. The recorded masses need in no way fear comparison with Haydn's, Mozart's and Schubert's smaller and middle masses. They unite the greatest contrasts imaginable between instrumental brilliance and polyphonic richness of the vocal. Werner is also the last great master of Palestrina's stile antico. The way in which he updated the imitated motet structure, which was already 200 years old at the time, by increasing the dissonance reveals a hidden power in the development of Western composition.