Haydn: Mass, Hob. XXII: 1 in F major 'Missa brevis'

This new recording of the Palestrina Choir includes specially written choral arrangements by David Mooney of much loved Irish hymn melodies. Recorded in the inspiring acoustic of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, the Boys and Gentlemen of the choir combine with organ, harp and orchestra to create a rich palette of Ireland’s best-loved and most cherished melodies.

In 1805, towards the end of his immensely productive and successful career, Haydn significantly expanded the youthful Missa brevis setting he had composed over fifty years earlier, enriching the orchestration with flute, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets and timpani.

The other work on this disc, his Mass in B flat major of 1801, gained its nickname ‘Creation Mass’ from a short quotation taken from his most famous oratorio. Although this upset the Empress Marie Therese, audiences to this day smile in recognition at this musical phrase.

The Missa brevis in F is Haydn’s earliest authenticated Mass and was written shortly before his departure from St Stephen’s in Vienna, where he had been recruited as a choirboy around 1740. Haydn himself, on rediscovering the work almost fifty years later, said he admired it for ‘the melody and a certain youthful fire’.

In contrast, the Harmoniemesse, written for the nameday festivities of Prince Nicolaus II’s wife in 1802, was to be Haydn’s last major composition. Using a full Harmonie (wind band), the work’s expressive intensity belies the end of its composer’s career.