For more than 25 years, Holzbauer was music director at the court of Mannheim, the musical center of the pre-classical period. His fame is due to his many operas, but he also wrote over 205 works in a variety of genres. However, most of his works have been lost, and the chamber music pieces played vividly by Camerata Cologne in this album serve as good samples of Holzbauer's rich world of works. In particular, the quintets he left behind have significant significance in music history due to their complete harpsichord parts.

For more than 25 years Ignaz Holzbauer (1711-83) was the music director of the Court of Mannheim. Although his fame (and his appointment to his prestigious position) was the result of his operas, he also composed more than 205 symphonies and concertos of different kinds, most of which have been lost. The present release offers an interesting sampling of Holzbauer's large output. The Symphony in D major is in the style of early Haydn, yet features innovative compositional techniques–specifically tempo and key relationships–that anticipate Mozart's late symphonic works.

A member of the Mannheim school, Ignaz Holzbauer (1711–1783) was a composer of symphonies, concertos, operas and chamber music who wrote in the style of the Sturm and Drang movement. In his penultimate opera "Tod der Dido" [The Death of Dido] (1779), Ignaz Holzbauer presented himself not only as a master of fine musical word interpretation, but also as an imaginative music dramatist. While the original Italian version underlined his position as one of the leading opera composers of the time, the German version which he wrote a year later additionally emphasizes his position as a pioneer of the German National Opera. Frieder Bernius therefore chose this version for a production performed at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1997, which is now being released here for the first time.

Let’s put aside the fact that the music on this disc has virtually nothing to do with what the title suggests–works written or performed by Mozart in Mannheim–and just enjoy what really is here: a huge mass by the distinguished director of the renowned Mannheim court orchestra (1753-78), and three Mozart choruses refitted with sacred texts to rescue them from the obscurity assured by the failure of the play, Thamos, King of Egypt, for which they originally were written. The mass, at 35 minutes, is a substantial work, with an opening that sounds more like an opera overture than a prelude to a sacred service. However, this reflects what then had become known as the “Mannheim style”, taking full advantage of the dramatic possibilities of a gigantic and very well-trained orchestra and a near-theatrical tradition for presentation of church music.

A thoroughly democratic balance of forces is evident in 'Music at the Court of Mannheim', a distinct and adventurous foray into early classical repertoire heralding Harnoncourt's debut recording for Teldec; a legendary career itself was born in the alert strains of these pioneering works.