Baroque Esprit
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Grosse Orgelmesse Es-dur Hob. XXII:4 for 4 solo voices, choir, 2 English horns, horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings and organo concertante (1766)
Kyrie [5.02]
Gloria [9.34]
Credo [11.59]
Sanctus [1.56]
Benedictus [6.53]
Agnus Dei [6.19]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Te Deum C-dur/C major K 141 (1769)
Te Deum laudamus [3.25]
Te ergo quaesumus [0.56]
Aeterna fac [1.54]
In te, Domine, speravi [2.42]
Gerhard Kögel (Sopran(o))
Wolfgang Drasch (Alt(o))
Hartmut Quotschalla (Tenor)
Urlich Streckmann (Bass)
Augsburger Domsingknaben
Müncher Residenz Orchester/Reinhard Kammler
Rudolf Brauckmann (organ positive)
Recorded: 1978, St. Thekla, Welden, Germany.
DHM DEUTSCHE HARMONIA MUNDI 05472 77860 2 [50.59]

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The Missa in honorem Beatissimae Virginis was written during Haydn’s time at the Esterhaz castle. It is very personal in tone, more than any other of his masses. The form as the booklet says ‘is more subtle and complex; the meaning behind the music and text is expressed with intensity and a new profundity’. The organ obbligato parts match perfectly the dark sound of the English horns. Mozart’s Te Deum was written in 1769, when Mozart was only thirteen years old. Nevertheless this work shows a great inventiveness in rhythm and in harmony.

The booklet contains some background about the works and a brief analysis of each in three languages.

The general impression left by these performances is rather disappointing. The choir’s tuning suffers throughout. The solo parts (soprano and alto) are sung by young boys. Despite showing some signs of expressiveness, these suffer from intonation problems and shortcomings in pronunciation of the Latin text. The choir parts are not quite in unison and fail to meld properly. The recording engineers could perhaps have helped here. Quite often one can distinguish the solo voices - soprano and alto - in the choir parts! Nevertheless there are some fine expressive moments especially in the Te Deum, which is more convincing as a performance. The orchestra sounds well balanced but again some work could have been done to blend it more effectively with the choir.

Christina Antoniadou

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