Hummel: Mass, Op 111 in D / Mass Op 77 in B flat major

Recording of the month - Gramophone (Dec 2002)

Gramophone Awards 2003 Winner - Choral

".. the first volume of Collegium Musicum 90's Hummel Mass Edition carried off a Gramophone magazine award for best choral recording. The D major Mass, in particular, was a revelation with its emotional response to the liturgical text. Throughout, conductor Richard Hickox subtly realised Hummel's dramatic intent (the opening of the Gloria could have slipped from a Gluck opera, and the recording is top-notch. As a bonus, the superb Susan Griton sings his Alma Virgo, a work that would easily find a place in hearts which are fond of Mozart's Alleluia exsultate."
(William Dart, NZ Herald)

"For all his successes in music as diverse as Edmund Rubbra and Mozart symphonies, it is in the choral repertoire that Richard Hickox brings something really special to his interpretations. His recordings of the Haydn Masses, written for the Esterházy court at Eisenstadt, were a superb achievement - a modern, period-instrument cycle that could replace the trail-blazing recordings by George Guest from the 1970s. This disc of Hummel Masses is a real labour of love, as I recall from Hickox's enthusiasm when I interviewed him earlier this year. In a way it continues the Esterházy theme since, along with Beethoven's Mass in C, these were successors to Haydn's Masses at the court chapel. Unlike the Haydn and Beethoven works these are choral Masses - there are no soloists. But in performances as spirited and vivid that it is hardly an impediment! To round out the disc the pure-voiced Susan Gritton sings an enchanting Alma Virgo." (Gramophone)

'...everything about it arouses keen hopes that Hickox and Collegium Musicum 90 will soon complete the series with Hummel's other three masses.'
International Record Review

'It is astonishing that such fine pieces have been so completely neglected. They here inspire Hickox and his team to performances just as electrifying as those they have given of the great series of late Haydn masses.'
The Guardian 'Classical CD of the Week

From Richard Hickox and Collegium Musicum 90, the team that produced the Haydn Mass Edition, Chandos is pleased to present the first in a series of masses by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

This is the first time these masses have been available on CD.

Hickox and CM90's Haydn Mass Edition is regarded by many as the top choice for the repertoire. Each volume has received tremendous critical acclaim and an enthusiastic reception from the public, and two were nominated for Gramophone awards.

There is a sense of logical progression that, on completion of their series of recordings of Haydn's masses, Richard Hickox and Collegium Musicum 90 have chosen to tackle the masses of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Contemporary of Beethoven and pupil of Mozart, Salieri and Clementi, Hummel was appointed Konzertmeister to Prince Esterházy, and like Haydn before him wrote his masses to celebrate the nameday of Princess Marie Hermenegild Esterházy.

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While members of the Esterházy family, Haydn and the court performers clearly appreciated Hummel's masses as following in the tradition established by their revered Kapellmeister, Hummel was far too gifted a composer to write pastiche Haydn. When the music does remind listeners of Haydn it is usually because both composers are reflecting a shared inheritance in the setting of the Ordinary. Like Haydn's last two masses, the Schöpfungsmesse and the Harmoniemesse, Hummel's Mass in D is scored for strings plus a full wind band, but Hummel's vocal forces do not include soloists. His creativity is apparent in the supplicatory 'Kyrie eleison', set in D minor rather than D major. The traditional three statements of the prayer 'Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis' are atmospherically set for choir and organ alone, while the end of the 'Dona nobis pacem' avoids the exultant response beloved of Haydn in favour of quiet contemplation. The works on this disc demonstrate Hummel's mastery of unfolding polyphony and the appealing tunefulness of his fresh and direct compositions.