Naxos appears to be employing a slightly different strategy from the norm in regard to its cycle of Haydn mass recordings; whereas conventional wisdom would have one releasing the individual volumes first with the "complete" box set containing all of them issued last, in this case the boxed set appeared first and the individual volumes are being issued afterward. There are 15 masses in Haydn's catalog, and a complete cycle has only been done once before, by Chandos. Determining an accurate date for the Cäcilienmesse (or Missa Cellensis in Honorem BVM, Hob. XXII:5) is one of the most controversial topics in all of Haydn scholarship; it is generally agreed that this was the first mass that Haydn composed when he took on the full mantle of the position of kapellmeister at Eszterháza in the wake of his predecessor's death in 1766. But it may have consisted of the Kyrie and Gloria only at that point, and other sections appear to be later additions; strenuous disagreement exists among scholars as to how long the process of adding these sections took. The booklet note here circumscribes the process neatly within a decade to "c. 1776," but elsewhere one might find estimates that places the end point as high as 1783 and yet others claim that the very name "Cäcilienmesse" is spurious.
No matter how controversial the Cäcilienmesse may be in terms of its historic placement, this Naxos recording -- performed by the combined forces of the
Trinity Choir, Rebel Baroque Orchestra under Jörg-Michael Schwarz and the whole under the baton of
J. Owen Burdick -- is certainly one of the finest made of this piece. Whether Haydn composed the whole thing at one time, over time, or recomposed the whole work from memory later in life -- as one account rather unhelpfully suggests -- it is an early work ripe with youthful vigor and energy. The source of this energy appears to be located in the Rebel Baroque Orchestra, which delivers an absolutely volcanic performance of Haydn's orchestral parts, an aspect of the performance that is doubly amazing as the orchestration in this mass is a good deal more difficult than is average in Haydn's mass settings. The blazing energy of the band seems to drive the chorus on to new heights of intensity. The soloists, taken from the body of the chorus, do a very good job with what is mostly rather short solos in the work, though this is the only variable element in the recording; soprano Ann Hoyt sings the solo in the "Laudamus te" beautifully, though the one in the Credo seems a bit low for her voice. She gets through it fine, though they might have considered awarding that particular solo to an alto. Tenor Stephen Sands struggles a little with the complicated solo in the Christe eleison. No one, however, suggests that this is easy music, and overall this is a strong and very well recorded performance. If one is looking to cherry pick some single discs out of Naxos' Haydn mass edition before -- or as an alternative to -- springing for Naxos' box set of same, this is definitely a volume one will want to seek out.