Mass for soloists, chorus, organ & orchestra in D minor ("Lord Nelson"), H. 22/11
Mass for soloists, chorus, organ & orchestra in B flat major ("Schöpfungsmesse"), H. 22/13
The recordings of German conductor Helmuth Rilling are sometimes unorthodox, especially when he goes beyond his central specialty: the music of J.S. Bach. These Haydn recordings exemplify both Rilling's strengths and his unorthodox qualities. As usual, Rilling uses modern instruments and fairly substantial choirs. Yet his approach to the Lord Nelson Mass seems informed by historical-performance minimalism. Rilling resolutely declines to turn the work into an impassioned peroration, beginning with a very restrained Kyrie and ...
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The recordings of German conductor Helmuth Rilling are sometimes unorthodox, especially when he goes beyond his central specialty: the music of J.S. Bach. These Haydn recordings exemplify both Rilling's strengths and his unorthodox qualities. As usual, Rilling uses modern instruments and fairly substantial choirs. Yet his approach to the Lord Nelson Mass seems informed by historical-performance minimalism. Rilling resolutely declines to turn the work into an impassioned peroration, beginning with a very restrained Kyrie and never really upping the volume in the big choral passages. The result is a performance that makes some listeners feel that the work is less a work "written in times of anguish," as the Haydn-era subtitle proclaims it, than perhaps a work written in a time of mild annoyance. Yet Rilling, well into his eighth decade, forges a genuinely fresh interpretation of the work. In his Lord Nelson Mass the focus is not on the choir but on the soloists, who step into the spotlight in front of...
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