Haydn’s name is usually associated with instrumental music: 104-odd symphonies, numerous string quartets and piano sonatas, various concertos and divertimenti. But he actually wrote quite a lot of vocal music as well: operas, sacred oratorios, songs and cantatas, as well as music for liturgical performance. Haydn’s vocal music is just as varied as his instrumental output, and well worth exploring.

The Kleine Orgelsolomesse is so called to distinguish it from another mass setting with an organ solo, the much longer Grosse Orgelsolomesse or Missa in Honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae, H. XXII:4. The Kleine Orgelsolomesse is a brief work of around 16 minutes duration, lightly scored for chorus, solo soprano, two violins and continuo. It is charming and reminiscent of Baroque church sonatas. It’s very well performed by the Trinity forces and Rebel Orchestra.

The Theresienmesse is a much more substantial work written 25 years after the Kleine Orgelsolomesse. It is scored for full orchestra (including clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, timpani and organ), four soloists and chorus. H.C. Robbins Landon called the last six masses ‘symphonies for voices and orchestra using the mass text’. These works combine spiritual depth with the architectural qualities of the late symphonies, all of which had been written by now. It is called the Theresienmesse because it was thought to have been composed for Marie Therese, wife of Emperor Francis II. Actually it was commissioned by Nicholas II, Prince of Esterhazy, to celebrate the name day of his wife Marie Hermenegild. The Prince’s wife was an admirer of Haydn’s, and the genial mood of the work perhaps reflects the warmth of their friendship.

Haydn’s intermingling of choir, soloists and orchestra is quite masterly, and alternates polyphonic and homophonic choral writing. The different sections of the text are given a variety of feeling that encompasses serenity, foreboding, and celebration. His trademark dramatic pauses and rhythmic drive are much in evidence, combined with some adventurous chromatic harmonies. This performance features generally brisk tempos, not much vibrato on the strings, and hard sticks on the timpani. Jane Glover’s direction keeps things moving along; apart from a rather squally entry from the alto, the soloists acquit themselves well. Nomore....

Review By David Hurwitz,ClassicsToday.com,May 2011

This recording, the last entry in Naxos’ excellent traversal of Haydn’s Masses with New York’s Trinity Choir and Rebel Baroque Orchestra, already has received just acclaim as part of the label’s comprehensive boxed collection. The program affectingly and effectively combines the minimally scored and lesser-known “Small organ solo Mass” with the grand and oft-performed Theresienmesse, which employs a quartet of soloists as only Haydn can—the writing is exquisite (a clear reminder of the thing-or-two Mozart earlier learned from the elder master). No 18th-century composer wrote with a more developed sense of sonority than Haydn, nor, when the occasion called for it (which was most of the time), with a more perfectly honed dramatic skill, whether in church music or opera or chamber works. Yes, this is church music, but it’s also unfailingly entertaining, certainly a plus for keeping a congregation happily in their seats!

As we have come to expect, J. Owen Burdick and his first-rate choir and orchestra capture both the functional, liturgical idiom and the musical/artistic aspects of these works with both enthusiasm and a respect for the particulars of Haydn’s scoring—that unique, ingratiating “sonority”. The boxed set is a bargain and well worth owning; but if you want only a representative recording from the collection, this one is a top choice.