HAYDN  Mass in D Minor, Hob. XXII: 11, “Nelson Mass”

In 1796, Haydn returned to the Esterházy estate following a series of trips to London, where, inspired by the city’s artistic landscape, he had composed what many consider to be his symphonic masterpieces. He concentrated his innovations from these “London” symphonies into six late masses, often called symphonies for voice and chorus for their integration of symphonic, operatic, and choral elements. Written in 1798, the Mass in D Minor, commonly known as the “Nelson Mass,” is the third and most distinct of the six masses.

MOZART  Requiem, K. 626

Mozart’s Requiem may well be history’s most celebrated work of church music. He started working on it in October 1791, and continued off and on until confined to his bed; when he died, the work remained incomplete. Constanze Mozart, newly widowed and now responsible for her husband’s debts, discreetly called on some of her late husband’s students, collaborators, and friends. It was Mozart’s student Franz Xaver Süssmayr who did most of the work and finally completed the manuscript. Awareness of Süssmayr’s contribution has over the years led to nagging questions regarding passages where the harmonies and orchestration seem awkward; in the last 50 years, no fewer than six musicologists have published alternative reconstructions to Süssmayr’s work. Tonight’s performance uses Robert Levin’s from 1993.