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In all sixteen of his prior masses, the highest note Mozart requires of any soprano section or soprano soloist is the G above the C above Middle C. In this mass, a number of movements require notes higher than this. As a convention, I will refer to these as “high” notes, e.g. high A, high B flat, high C.
The three difficult soprano solos in “K427” were carefully crafted for Constanze’s voice, and we know from Nannerl’s diary that she sang them at St. Peter (which is the only line of commentary on the performance from any source). “Christe eleison” requires several high A flats, one of which must be hit cleanly following a nearly two-octave jump. “Laudamus te” requires several high A naturals. And “Et incarnatus est” has several high B flats and high Cs, two of which must be reached cleanly after big jumps.
St. Peter’s orchestra and choir were too meager for the score’s requirements, so they would have to have been supplemented. Mozart had been apprehensive about whether he might actually be arrested upon arrival in Salzburg, so Colloredo must have given at least tacit approval for the performance, as many court instrumentalists and singers took part in it.
We don’t know who the other soloists were, but they were another soprano, a tenor, and a bass. Mozart did not write for an alto soloist in this mass. Francesco Ceccarelli, still in the archbishop’s employ, could have been the second soprano, but there are several reasons I think this is unlikely. First of all, I doubt he would have wanted to take a secondary part, but more importantly, I don’t think he had the range for it. In the duet “Domine Deus”, the Soprano 2 part requires a one and one-half octave jump to high B flat and another to high A natural. In “Quoniam”, Soprano 2 has several high A naturals and a sustained high B natural. And in “Benedictus”, Soprano 2 has several high A naturals.
The masses in which we know Ceccarelli sang, “K275”, “K317”, and “K337”, do not require any note above G. The one aria we know Mozart wrote for him, “K374”, does not go above several fleeting high A flats. We also know Mozart made a revision for Ceccarelli of the K165 motet “Exsultate, jubilate”, composed years before for another castrato and requiring a number of high A naturals. I have not been able to find a score showing what the “revision” entailed, but I’m guessing it was to bring down those high notes to keep Ceccarelli from screeching. If Mozart had written for an alto part as the second high voice in this mass, Ceccarelli could have sung it easily. Perhaps Mozart wanted to ensure that he would have exactly two women and two men as soloists.
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