• Tracks

The Missa Solemnis is a worthy successor to the late Haydn Masses. It's brilliant orchestration, inventive and flexible choral writing and technical resourcefulness are the work of an experienced and gifted composer. While the work obviously owes much to the example of the late Haydn Masses it is no pale, bloodless imitation. The Kyrie is a deeply satisfying movement. The Grave opening is at once highly dramatic and yet firmly rooted in the long and distinguished Viennese tradition of C major festive Masses. In contrast, the quiet opening of the succeeding Allegro moderato, scored for winds alone, is an astonishingly modern touch. The choral writing is lyrical but not without it's moments of drama; the accompaniment, which benefits enormously from Hummel's brilliant handling of his orchestral forces, infuses the Kyrie with tremendous drive and verve. The Te Deum is an immensely attractive work. The orchestration blazes with bright primary colors and the choral writing is fluid and attractive. Although relatively short in duration, the Te Deum contains moments of great emotional gravity as well as pure transcendent joy. If indeed Hummel did compose the work to celebrate the Peace of Pressburg, one might argue that the Alliance's defeat at Austerlitz received a far greater musical memorial than did Wellington's victory at the Battle of Vittoria a few years later.