Set in a warm church acoustic, these period performances of Haydn and Schubert, recorded live, demonstrate just how far Nikolaus Harnoncourt has travelled since his pioneering work in this field several decades ago. Where in his early days his performances were rugged, the quality which marks all these performances is lightness, resilience and transparency. In the Haydn Mass, that goes with speeds that are moderate in both directions. Allegros are relatively relaxed with rhythms crisply sprung, and Andantes flow easily. The big exception comes in the final ‘Dona nobis pacem’ of the Haydn, where Harnoncourt opts for a very fast speed, rounding off this celebration of the Mass in exhilaration – reflecting what Haydn so often put at the end of his scores, ‘Laus Deo’, Praise to God.
Harnoncourt’s approach regularly brings out the originality of the writing. The lightness of such passages as the fugato in the ‘Quoniam’ section of the Gloria (track 7, O’43”) makes it sound extraordinarily modern, and similarly in the fugato of the ‘Dona nobis pacem’, while the repeated rhythm for low bassoon and timpani in the Sanctus equally sounds fresh and new.
The four soloists are excellent, as they are in the two shorter Schubert works. The Magnificat is relatively well known, and Christiane Oelze is ravishingly beautiful in the central ‘Deposuit’ section. By contrast the Offertorium, ‘Intende voci’, for tenor soloist, choir and orchestra, written in 1828 within weeks of the composer’s death, is, surprisingly, a rarity. Though the formalised style harks back to Haydn and Mozart, the gravity of the inspiration is clear, particularly in a live performance as strong and sensitive as this. The recording is warmly atmospheric, even if the balance of the choir, slightly backward, prevents it from having quite the impact its incisive singing deserves. An unexpected coupling, but an illuminating one.'