Haydn's Harmoniemesse

Richard Wigmore chooses his favourite recording of Joseph Haydn's Harmoniemesse in B flat.

In 1802, when Haydn completed the Harmoniemesse (having, as he put it, "toiled wearily and laboriously"), the 70-year-old was acknowledged as Europe's greatest living composer. The mass setting, Haydn's last major completed work, never gained the same popularity as his two late oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. But it has long been recognised as one of Haydn's supreme achievements into which, despite old age and failing health, he poured a lifetime of experience to create music both fresh and inspiring. The orchestra is the largest Haydn used for any of his six masses and its name comes from its large section of wind ('harmonie') instruments.