Veteran Bach conductor
Helmuth Rilling has remained active well into his eighth decade -- in both Germany and the U.S. where he co-founded the Oregon Bach Festival and has continued to serve as its artistic director. This handsome pairing of late Haydn masses (the Wind Band Mass, or Harmoniemesse, of 1802 was Haydn's last completed composition) features the
Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart -- one of Germany's excellent regional choirs -- on the Harmoniemesse, along with the
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra on the slightly earlier Heiligmesse. The performances were recorded in 2008, rounding out a series of similar discs in time for the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death in 2009. It's indicative of
Rilling's skills that the two performances, in very different places (although both are groups of
Rilling's creation), come out sounding quite consistent. The German choristers have a somewhat richer, more rounded sound than their probably younger American counterparts, but both groups have a superior blend and defect-free surface ideal for the kind of interpretation
Rilling offers. Both masses are given rather sober treatments, in keeping with the formal, ceremonial function they originally served. Haydn's late masses were his final commissions from the Esterházy family, intended for the name day celebrations of Princess Maria Josepha Hermenegild.
Rilling emphasizes the brass parts (apparently on modern instruments, but treated with a prominence borne of historical-instrument versions), uses quite a large choir and chooses big-voiced, middle-aged soloists who add an element of pomp. There are certainly elements of Haydn's pleasing symphonic language in these masses, but it is a serious mood that's on display here. That's especially appropriate in the Harmoniemesse, written in 1802 and fully reflective of the news and rumors of war among which it arose. The Gächingen choristers are extremely effective in the surprising fugue that kicks in during the Kyrie, which is not a usual place for a fugue in the Classical-period language at all. There's nothing flashy, and nothing that really stands out, in these performances, but
Rilling makes a persuasive case that that's as it should be. The engineers were as successful as the conductor in melding disparate performance situations into a whole.