Tyrolean Christmas Concert

Karl Pembaur: Christmas Mass, op. 18 (1915) & Christmas Pieces from Early 20th Century Tyrolean Tradition

Karl Pembaur's father, Josef, was the music director in Innsbruck and significantly influenced the city's music life for decades. Karl was born in 1876 and, like his older brother Josef junior, pursued a career in music. He studied at the Royal Music School in Munich. After completing his education, he worked in Dresden as a choir director and répétiteur at the court opera, as well as an organist at the Catholic Court Church. In 1908 he was appointed music director and from 1913 he led the music of the Dresden Court Church. Pembaur primarily created church music works that gained wide distribution, but also songs and marches. His sonically beautiful, both functional and original Christmas Mass of 1915 is a so-called plenary mass – meaning that he set not only the parts of the Ordinary but also the Proper pieces of the "Missa in die" (Mass of the Day), the third mass for the Christmas festival: The introit "Puer natus est," the Gradual "Viderunt omnes fines terrae," the offertory "Tui sunt coeli," and the Communion, again with the text "Viderunt omnes fines terrae." Pembaur's mass combines church musical tradition with a decidedly contemporary late-Romantic sound language; the influence of his father's masses is notable, as well as an orientation toward the model of Munich's grand master of Musica sacra, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. The mass is complemented by Christmas pieces from the early 20th century from Tyrolean tradition.

Price Information:

Price information at https://www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at/termin/konzert-72/?datum=202312160000

Image credit(s): Birgit Raitmayr