Search - Haydn, Bernstein, Brso :: Paukenmesse

Mass In Time Of War, And For All Time

Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 08/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps more than any conductor of the late 20th century, Leonard Bernstein, apart from his near-evangelistic advocacy of Mahler and Aaron Copland, was a force to be reckoned when it came to bringing the late Mass settings of Franz Joseph Haydn back into the public fold the way he did in the late 1970s. And one of the many great examples of this is in this 1984 recording of Haydn's Mass No. 9 In C Major, known as the Mass In Time Of War.



Though in the standard six-movement setting of the traditional Latin Mass, this 1796 setting of Haydn's is a very forward-looking piece, very dramatic in places, demanding quite a lot from all concerned. But the vocal soloists here (Judith Bleggen; Claes H. Ahnsjo; Hans Sotin; Brigitte Fassbaender) are more than up to the task, as is Bernstein and the world-reknowned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, recorded live in Munich in September 1984. The German title of the Mass, "Paukenmesse", refers to Haydn's inventive use of timpani in the concluding Agnus Dei section, though in this case these aren't battle cries, but extreme heartbeats sounding out a prayer for peace.



Although Bernstein's tempos here are (unsurprisingly) somewhat slower than they were for his 1975 New York Philharmonic version, the work never drags, and is a very powerful precursor to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. This may be a "Mass In Time Of War", but it is also a setting of the Latin Mass for all time, particularly in these still-troubling times we live in today."