The Lord Nelson Mass is one of the great masterpieces of the classical choral repertoire. It’s literally amazing how threatening Haydn manages to make such lightly scored music (just strings, three trumpets, timpani, and organ). The power of the trumpets and drums when Haydn unleashes them in the Kyrie and the Benedictus is simply primal. It’s always amazed me that this work isn’t more popular than, say, a hackneyed warhorse like the Mozart Requiem (most of which isn’t by Mozart at all), but then again Haydn’s last works (of which this is one) lack the biographical allure of Mozart’s. Whatever the reason, it sure ain’t the music. This piece blows Mozart away. In any case, conductor Richard Hickox turns in a very successful performance, by turns anguished and exuberant, and Susan Gritton acquits herself admirably in both the thrilling soprano solos of the Kyrie as well as in the lovely setting of the “Ave Regina.” The tiny Missa Brevis, just 12 minutes long with the text all jumbled together in the longer movements, is one of those adorable works that so clearly prove that, unless it was a special occasion of unusual importance, 18th century Austrians had better things to do than waste time hanging around in church.
