Mozart: Alleluia from Exsultate Jubilate, Nola Richardson & Voices of Music. Original, K. 165 8K

The Alleluia from Mozart’s motet Exsultate Jubilate, performed on original instruments by the award winning Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. Nola Richardson, soprano. This work presented here for the first time in 8K video on period instruments. Months after completing the Divertimento in D Major, Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart left for their third tour of Italy, with a first stop in Milan. There they met the soprano castrato, composer, and harpsichordist Venanzio Rauzzini, who was cast as one of the leads in Wolfgang Mozart’s new opera Lucio Silla opposite the prima donna Anna Lucia de Amicis. Clearly, Mozart was impressed by Rauzzini’s talent, because he composed this motet a month later to showcase the singer’s abilities. Its premiere took place in a Milan church on January 17, 1773. While the work has a religious text, it could be understood as a concerto for soprano voice: its fast-slow-fast structure certainly echoes that of an instrumental concerto, with the addition of a recitative between th