The recordings of the Boston Baroque have been rightly praised for their precise work on historical instruments, and for a clean, bright approach free from mannerism. Conductor Martin Pearlman generally finds engaging young American vocal soloists, and that's a major virtue of this recording of the Missa in Angustiis in D minor, the so-called Lord Nelson Mass. Programming is a strong point; the performances on this album were being rehearsed as bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, and the mass and the ...
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The recordings of the Boston Baroque have been rightly praised for their precise work on historical instruments, and for a clean, bright approach free from mannerism. Conductor Martin Pearlman generally finds engaging young American vocal soloists, and that's a major virtue of this recording of the Missa in Angustiis in D minor, the so-called Lord Nelson Mass. Programming is a strong point; the performances on this album were being rehearsed as bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, and the mass and the Symphony No. 102 in B flat major indeed are persuasive as music "in time of anguish," as the title of the mass promises. That work features the trumpets and drums of war as part of its very texture, with wide-open musical spaces at high volume that are unlike anything else Haydn ever wrote (the mass, due to budget cuts imposed by Haydn's employer, includes no wind parts except for trumpets). And that's where this performance runs into trouble. It's not clear exactly how many musicians were...
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