Cantata for the Coronation of Leopold II

This album is the second release in the Naxos Czech Music Masters from Vienna series, and features the world premiere recording of Kozeluch s magnificent coronation cantata. The coronation of Leopold II in Prague in 1791 came at a difficult time for European monarchs, although Leopold himself enjoyed a reputation as an enlightened ruler. Two musical works were commissioned for the occasion: Mozart s opera La clemenza di Tito and Kozeluch s cantata Heil dem Monarchen. The cantata, by turns celebratory, serene and darkly dramatic, was well-received and enhanced Kozeluch s reputation in royal circles. It almost certainly played a part in his appointment in 1792 to the court of Leopold s son and successor, the last Holy Roman Emperor Franz II.