Johann Michael Haydn: Deutsche Messe
This CD presents church music works of J. M. Haydn, W. A. Mozart and L. Mozart, partly with world premiere recordings. The Court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg can look back on a centuries-old musical tradition. It attained its zenith in the musical culture of Salzburg during the second half of the 18th century through two composers who are being honored for special anniversaries in 2006: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [for his 250th birthday] and Johann Michael Haydn [the 200th annniversary of his death]. Although the music of the younger Haydn brother was highly regarded by his contemporaries, his music was forgotten in the 19th century and still waits to be rediscovered. One ofhis more well-known works is the central piece on the present CD, the German Mass “Hier liegt vor deiner Majestät” MH 560 [Here before thy majesty], a work which is musically the epitome of south-German/Austrian Catholicism and which to this day is still a part of church music practice in this region. Wolfgang Amaedeus Mozart is represented on this recording with several smaller, lesser-known works, including the 23-measure motet “God is our Refuge” K. 20, his first setting of a sacred text, which he composed in London at the age of nine. In addition, the CD contains two movements from Leopold Mozart’s C Major Mass, which presents the tradition of the older style of church music. It long was regarded to have been composed by his son.
