Sacred music by Joseph Haydn and Niccolò Jommelli

Known as the St Cecilia Mass, Haydn’s fifth Missa is his longest and
most  complex  setting  of  the  Latin  Mass  text.  Rich  in  elaborate
contrapuntal  interweaving  and  lasting  more  than  an  hour,  it
reveals  Haydn  the  opera  composer.  This  1982  recording  of  a
concert  performance  in  the  Ottobeuren  Basilica  features  the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir under the baton
of  Rafael  Kubelík.  It  is  still  considered  a  reference  recording  of
the work.
Niccolò Jommelli’s Mass in D major and his Te Deum were both
written during his time at Charles Eugene’s Württemberg court,
where he is said to have held the highest paid post for a musician
in Europe. The combination of the Württemberg court’s love of  
French  music,  the  virtuoso  Mannheim  school  and  Jommelli’s
Italian  roots  shaped  the  composer’s  stylistically  diverse  sacred
oeuvre.  The  Te  Deum,  which  lasts  barely  fifteen  minutes,  was
frequently performed right up to the early 19th century.