Boston Baroque - Haydn: Lord Nelson Mass - The Observer

Haydn's late masses are too often passed over in favour of The Creation and The Seasons, but they contain some of his very greatest music, notably this Missa in Angustiis, nicknamed the Lord Nelson. The eruption of warlike fanfares where one least expects it in the serene 'Benedictus', the exuberance of the choral fugues, the stratospheric writing for soprano, and the ethereal vision of the afterlife in Et vitam venturi saeculi - all add up to a unique setting, freshly captured here by the skilled American period-instrument forces of Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman. The acoustic is resonant, the playing in the symphony is deft and lively.