Richard Hickox has long been an invigorating exponent of Haydn’s Masses, and this disc bodes well for his projected complete series of these still under-appreciated works. With his expert period orchestra and 24-strong professional choir he generates the physical and spiritual elation essential to this music, calling to mind Haydn’s own much-quoted remark that whenever he praised God his heart leapt with joy. In the glorious Theresienmesse of 1799 his manner is a shade brisker and more athletic than Trevor Pinnock’s larger-scaled reading; but if Pinnock brings rather more breadth and grandeur to, say, the opening of the Kyrie or the Sanctus, Hickox is particularly fine in the exultant, springing Gloria and the rough-hewn vigour of the Credo. He understands, too, the Mass’s dramatic and symphonic impetus, bringing a powerful cumulative momentum to the sonata-form “Dona nobis pacem” and thrillingly tightening the screws in the closing pages.
Where Hickox has a decisive edge over Pinnock is firstly in the more forward placing of his choir (though never at the expense of orchestral detail, keenly observed by Hickox), and secondly in his uncommonly well-integrated solo quartet, who, framed by the sweet-toned Janice Watson and the gentle, mellifluous Stephen Varcoe, sing with a chamber-musical grace and refinement in the “Et incarnatus est” and the Benedictus. And their supplicatory tenderness in the “Dona nobis pacem” (where Pinnock’s solo quartet is more assertive, less subtle in phrasing) contrasts arrestingly with the choir’s urgent demands for peace.
Hickox also captures the peculiar serenity and innocence of the much earlier Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo, or ‘Little Organ Mass’, its intimacy enhanced here by the use of solo strings. The drastically telescoped Gloria and Credo (the former over in 50 seconds flat) dance happily, the Kyrie and Agnus Dei have a touching, unforced gravity, and Janice Watson is clear and true in the rococo Benedictus, whose graceful organ curlicues lend the Mass its nickname. A disc guaranteed to refresh the spirit, and one that has me eagerly looking forward to the next volume.'