Notes and Editorial Reviews
This final instalment in Richard Hickox’s survey of Haydn Masses juxtaposes two contrasting works that are still too little known: the Great Organ Mass (c1769), so called because of its decorative organ solos and colouring by the plangent sonority of cors anglais; and the ceremonial C major Missa cellensis of 1782, whose bold rhetoric and symphonic inclinations often prefigure the six great Masses of Haydn’s old age. As ever, Hickox chooses lively yet never hectic tempi, secures clean choral and orchestral textures and strikes a happy balance between dancing energy and due liturgical gravity. The choir is fresh-toned and responsive; and in numbers such as the idyllic Benedictus of the Organ Mass the solo quartet, topped by the soaring
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soprano of Susan Gritton, sings with a chamber-musical grace and refinement. Other highlights in this gentlest and most rarefied of Haydn’s Masses include the musing, pastoral Kyrie and the plaintive ‘Et incarnatus’, sung with quiet intensity and perfect control by Mark Padmore. Hickox and his forces are no less vivid in the later Mass: in, say, the exhilarating triple-time swing of the Kyrie (just the sort of movement frowned on by Haydn’s more po-faced contemporaries), the powerful F minor ‘Qui tollis’, or the syncopated ‘Dona nobis’ fugue, excitingly built to its climax. Among the sparse competition there is a good, if rough-edged, version of the Organ Mass from Simon Preston (L’Oiseau-Lyre), and a vigorous, sometimes over-driven one, likewise of late Seventies vintage, of the Missa cellensis from George Guest (Decca). This new recording is both more polished and more attentive to the individual colour and character of these Masses, and becomes a clear first choice.
Performance: 5 (out of 5) Sound: 5 (out of 5)
-- Richard Wigmore, BBC Music Magazine
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Works on This Recording
1.
Missa in honorem BVM, H 22 no 4 "Grosse Orgelmesse" by Franz Joseph Haydn
Performer:
Louise Winter (Alto),
Susan Gritton (Soprano),
Mark Padmore (Tenor),
Stephen Varcoe (Bass),
Ian Watson (Organ)
Conductor:
Richard Hickox
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Collegium Musicum 90,
Collegium Musicum 90 Choir
Period: Classical
Written: by 1774; Eszterhazá, Hungary
Date of Recording: 01/2001
Venue: Blackheath Halls, England
Length: 38 Minutes 17 Secs.
Language: Latin
2.
Missa Cellensis, H 22 no 8 "Mariazellermesse" by Franz Joseph Haydn
Performer:
Susan Gritton (Soprano),
Mark Padmore (Tenor),
Louise Winter (Mezzo Soprano),
Stephen Varcoe (Bass),
Ian Watson (Organ)
Conductor:
Richard Hickox
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Collegium Musicum 90,
Collegium Musicum 90 Choir
Period: Classical
Written: 1782; Eszterhazá, Hungary
Date of Recording: 01/2001
Venue: Blackheath Halls, England
Length: 32 Minutes 37 Secs.
Language: Latin
Sound Samples
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Kyrie
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Gloria: Gloria in excelsis Deo -
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Gloria: Gratias agimus tibi -
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Gloria: Quoniam tu solus Sanctus
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Credo: Credo in unum Deum -
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Credo: Et incarnatus est -
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Credo: Et resurrexit
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Sanctus
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Benedictus
Mass No. 5 in E flat major, Hob.XXII:4, "Missa in honorem BVM", "Missa Sancti Josephi", "Grosse Orgelsolomesse": Agnus Dei
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Kyrie
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Gloria: Gloria in excelsis Deo -
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Gloria: Gratias agimus tibi -
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Gloria: Quoniam tu solus Sanctus
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Credo: Credo in unum Deum -
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Credo: Et incarnatus est -
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Credo: Et resurrexit
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Sanctus
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Benedictus
Mass No. 8 in C major, Hob.XXII:8, "Missa Cellensis", "Mariazellermesse": Agnus Dei
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