Haydn: Masses Volume 2 - Cacilienmesse

"The REBEL Baroque Orchestra really plays well: trumpets and drums have the requisite panache and the strings offer excellent intonation and an appealingly sweet timbre that never turns scruffy or thin.

Highlights are many: the glorious concluding fugues of the Gloria, Credo, and Dona nobis pacem (happily Burdick isn't afraid to make a few welcome ritards at the very ends, rather than simply letting the music run into a brick wall as so many others do); Liston's brilliant singing of her difficult "Quoniam" aria in the Gloria; the gorgeous "Et incarnatus" section of the Credo; and the heartfelt account of the Benedictus."
(10/10 ClassicsToday May 2010)

The Missa Cellensis (or Cäcilienmesse) was Haydn's first Mass setting for his new employers at Eszterháza. In common with his Stabat Mater, Haydn draws upon the wealth of musical styles and traditions associated with the Viennese Mass. Scored for strings, oboes, bassoon, trumpets, timpani and organ, plus soloists and choir, the work may originally have comprised the Kyrie and Gloria alone, with the other sections added in the mid-1770s. The final version, heard here, triumphantly concludes at 'Dona nobis pacem' with a grand fugue.