For too long, Michael Haydn was one of the more shadowy figures of 18th-century music. While his brother Joseph enjoyed an international profile and went down in history as the genial Papa Haydn, Michael was later sneered at for being "a little rough in manners and in later life given
to drink". Yet Schubert confessed to weeping at Michael Haydn's grave and hailed him as one of his most-admired composers.
Michael Haydn's finest work can be found in his sacred music. Considering he was employed in the ecclesiastical court of Salzburg, it is not surprising that a prodigious amount of it is around.
A new recording of his Requiem for Archbishop Siegmund and St Ursula Mass by the King's Consort reveals a singular voice.
The Requiem is an emotionally engaging piece, written on the death of his patron, but also, no doubt, affected by the death of Haydn's young daughter in the same year.
The soloists are high calibre. Hilary Summers' alto leads the Versus with Ferrier-like authority, and she is followed by the expressive duetting of James Gilchrist and Peter Harvey.
An unerring Mors stupebit is just one example of Carolyn Sampson's perfectly tuned soprano.
Complementing the fine singing from the 22 voices of the choir is the King's Consort, with strings making the most of Haydn's detailed and remarkably busy writing. A generous brass contingent produces the customary awe in the Tuba mirum.
The St Ursula Mass is a more modest score, written in 1793 for the service in which the composer's friend, Ursula Oswald, took her vows.
In the opening Kyrie, a sense of joy exudes from every bar, launched by Sampson with Mozartian grace. A mighty Gloria changes the mood to one of frank jubilation. Yet there is delicacy, too, in the muted strings of the Incarnatus est, artfully caught in a Hyperion recording that does full justice to the subtle layering of Haydn's score.
If you are fond of the sacred music of Mozart and the older Haydn, and have been captivated by Hyperion's Hummel Mass project, then this CD is worth investigating. And, with two CDs for the price of one, it is a bargain.
* Michael Haydn, Requiem (Hyperion CDA 67510, through Ode Records)
