Joseph Messner
Salzburg Suite · Festival Fanfare op. 55/1
Salzburg Suite op. 51 · Rondo Gioccoso for Orchestra op. 54
Great Mozart Fanfare op. 55/4
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg
Ivor Bolton, conductor
Joseph Messner wrote over 700 works in nearly all
genres. He was born in 1893 in Schwaz (Tyrolia,
Austria) and died in 1969 in Salzburg. He achieved
great international renown as an organist, conductor
and composer. His Salzburger Festspielfanfare,
which introduced and closed all broadcasts from
the Salzburg Festival, was performed for decades
and became his most popular piece. As homage
to the former Domkapellmeister zu Salzburg, the
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under Ivor Bolton
plays four of Messner’s orchestral works that have
particularly close ties to Salzburg.
Composer Joseph Messner
(Schwaz 1893 – 1969 Salzburg)
„From his earliest youth, Messner loved the organ.
He is one of our greatest organists and has been
famed as a cathedral kapellmeister and choral conductor
in Salzburg for many years. His cathedral
concerts are a main attraction at the Salzburg
Festival. Messner is one of the most advanced
composers of contemporary sacred music; his works
have attracted exceptionally great attention due
to their boldness. He also wrote symphonies and
operas, wind fanfares (including the festival fanfare),
masses, works for choir and organ, orchestral
works, concertos and chamber music.” (Report
by an editor at Universal-Edition publishing
house, Vienna 1938).
Joseph Messner’s parents were workers in the
Tyrolean mining town of Schwaz. His great
musical talents were recognized at an early age
and ideally furthered. In 1921, he was appointed
cathedral organist in Salzburg; in 1926 he assumed
the post of cathedral kapellmeister. Expressly
for him, Max Reinhardt and Hugo von
Hofmannsthal founded the “Cathedral Concerts
of the Salzburg Festival” in 1927. In 1935,
the press office of the Salzburg Festival listed
him as one of the “five most famous conductors
alive today, besides Arturo Toscanini (Milan),
Bruno Walter, Felix von Weingartner and Adrian
Boult (London).”
Joseph Messner’s oeuvre comprises some
700 titles, including twelve masses, 400 motets,
three symphonies, four operas, 50 choral works,
100 songs, instrumental concertos, chamber
music, arrangements and 30 fanfares, including
the Salzburg Festival Fanfare, which introduced
and concluded all broadcasts of the music from
the festival, and achieved the greatest international
fame.
GE / 2009