Haydn’s Final Masterpiece

Haydn’s last mass setting, his thrilling 1802 Harmoniemesse, plus Stravinsky’s serene 1944/48 Mass.

Sarah Yanovitch Vitale, soprano | Thea Lobo, alto | Charles Blandy, tenor | David Kravitz, bass
with full orchestra and wind ensemble.

Saturday, May 21, 2022 at 8 pm

First Church Congregational
11 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

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Program Notes

In 1942, Stravinsky had commented that for personal reasons he thought he’d like to compose a Mass. Later, while browsing in a second-hand music store in Los Angeles, Stravinsky came upon some Mass settings by Mozart. Delighted with these discoveries, he resolved to write his own setting, but one appropriate for liturgical use in a Roman Catholic church service. The Kyrie and Gloria were written down in 1944, the balance between 1947 and 1948. The premiere was given on October 27, 1948 by Ernest Ansermet at La Scala. Scored for mixed chorus, soloists and double wind quintet, Mass was written shortly after Stravinsky’s permanent move to the United States, and just before The Rake’s Progress. The style, much like that of the earlier Symphony of Psalms, exhibits a spartan, impersonal and ritualistic approach, with a conscious avoidance of overt self-expression. Its syllabic chanting recalls Orthodox Church practice, but burnished by cool yet rich accompaniment by the winds–a sonority similar to the composer’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments which at this time was undergoing significant revision.

Much of the choral declamation in Mass is set homophonically, though the Christe section of the Kyrie briefly exhibits imitative counterpoint. The more active counterpoint in Mass is reserved for the winds and the vocal soloists, par­ticularly evident in the Sanctus, though heard at several other significant textural moments.

The apparent simplicity of Mass hides a carefully worked out plan of contrast and attention to details of text and sonority. From this plan emerges a refreshing and concise declamation of the Mass text, coolly haloed by its independent ac­companiment of 10 wind instruments, resulting in a moving and magisterial serenity.

Joseph Haydn was born in 1732 in Rohrau, a small town in Austria near the Hungarian border. Unlike Mozart, Haydn was no child prodigy and was not to reach his fame until well into his adult life. From age eight until his voice changed, he served as choirboy in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna where he gained much practical experience but little formal music education. Thereafter he remained in Vienna barely supporting himself through various musical jobs and teaching. In 1758, at age twenty-six, Haydn received his first full post at the court of a Bohemian nobleman, and it was for this master that Haydn wrote the first of his 106 known symphonies. Haydn, though not as facile as Mozart in producing compositions, was a hard-working craftsman who be­came a great composer as much from diligence and practice as from inborn talent. He was also much more adept with the politics of court life than Mozart, and thus, in 1761, was able to win one of the most desirable musical posts in Europe–head of the large musical establishment of Prince Paul Anton Esterházy of Hungary.

The country estate of Esterháza rivaled Versailles in splendor and housed a complete musical community which was ideal for Haydn’s development as a composer. The grounds held theaters for opera and marionette plays as well as numerous music rooms. Under Haydn’s guidance, the orchestra was built up to twenty-five players, and a dozen singers were kept for bi-weekly opera performances. Concerts were daily events here, and Haydn, besides his duty as court composer, had full responsibility for all musical activities. He was to spend the next thirty years of his life here until 1790, when upon the death of Prince Nicholas I, he was able to move to Vienna and travel to London where he composed many works, including the twelve London sympho­nies. Still in service to the Esterházy family but now under Nicholas II who was more interested in the prestige of employing Haydn than the composer’s actual duties, he was free to travel and compose at his leisure. Among the few works he produced during this time that were composed for this new master were his last six full choral masses, culminating in the second work we will present this evening.

The Harmoniemesse or “Wind-band Mass” was written in 1802 and was the last large-scale work Haydn was to produce. It meets and often exceeds all the expectations one may have of a “last” work. As its name implies, the Harmoniemesse makes extensive use of the instruments found in the wind-band of an orchestra and is scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, organ, and a full complement of strings. Constructed on a large scale, the work allots the bulk of the text to the chorus, though soloists play im­portant roles at significant textual moments.

Haydn’s Kyrie is tellingly lengthy, and emotionally heartfelt. Rather than beginning immediately with text, the work gives almost the entire main theme of the movement in the orchestra before it is interrupted by a dramatic fortissimo choral entrance, which is only then followed by the presentation of the theme by the soloists. This Mass abounds with similar dramatic gestures and makes full use of Haydn’s rich repertoire of rhythmic, harmonic and contrapuntal techniques. The Gloria is divided into three subsections: the first is in a brisk tempo, the second, beginning with the text “Gratias agimus tibi,” is in a slower three-beat tempo, and the last returns to a brisk tempo with the words “Quo­niam tu solus sanctus” and culminates in a fabulous double fugue on the words “in gloria Dei patris, Amen.”

The Credo is also divided into sections: a resolute “Credo,” a lyrical “Et incarnatus est” followed by a powerfully dissonant “Crucifixus,” and a rousing “Et resurrexit,” which leads to another superb fugue in 6/8 time on “Et vitam venturi saeculi.”

There follows a serene Sanctus scored first for vocal soloists, and then dramatically answered by full chorus which then bursts into a joyful “Pleni sunt coeli” and “Osanna.” Haydn uses this harmonically daring “Osanna” as a link to the Benedictus–and what a Benedictus this is! Abounding in scurrying pianissimo passages for orchestra and chorus, contrasting forte passages, unexpected harmonies and dissonances, there is little like it in all of Haydn’s work. The “Osanna” is heard once again at its close.

Haydn brings his fullest mastery of musical drama and form to the final movement of this magnificent work–the Agnus Dei. A prayerful theme for orchestra acts as prelude for the three-part reiteration of the text, each more intense and heartfelt than its predecessor. Reserving his most dramatic material for the culmination of the work, he interrupts the proceedings with exciting brass fanfares spiked with timpani, and triumphantly summons soloists, chorus and orchestra to express the sentiment of “Dona nobis pacem,” capping the final measures with a soaring arpeggio to high B-flat, the highest choral pitch to be heard in the entire composition.

- Program Note © 2022 by John W. Ehrlich