Scoring: Soli SATB, Coro SATB, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Cor, 2 Tr, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Missa Sancti Josephi occupies a key position among his circa twenty large masses. In this mass, probably composed in 1732 for a feast of a Saint (thus, without a Credo), for the first time the composer took up the operatic style of Johann Adolf Hasse – the latter had first performed his opera Cleofide in Dresden in 1731. Zelenka’s unmistakable individuality created a completely independent work wit...