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.

Niccolo 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.

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Recordings: Basilika Ottenbeuren, 1982 [Live] (Haydn); Prag, 10-12 November 1997 (Jommelli)