75 Years of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Freiburger Barockorchester

Joseph Haydn’s “Missa in tempore belli” was written at a time when Austria was at war in a series of different coalitions against revolutionary France – when Napoléon Bonaparte was gaining one victory after another in his Italian campaign. The sound of his approaching troops even reached the festive guests who gathered on Boxing Day 1796 in the Piarist Church of Maria Treu to hear the first performance of the work that is known as the “Paukenmesse” (Timpani Mass). What effect might Haydn’s gripping music have had on his contemporaries? For example, in the closing “Agnus Dei” when muffled drum rolls can sudden be heard as if from afar, building menacingly to a powerful crescendo amid fanfares of brass? It was probably deeply unsettling. Because with these terrifying sounds, Haydn openly enters a contemporary war scene before he making a lengthy and all the more effective plea for peace: it is no coincidence that the word “pacem” is repeated over forty times. Joseph Haydn’s Te Deum, composed around 1800, and the motet “Insanae et vanae curae” are also on the programme. Haydn’s works are complemented by the imposing “Missa hispanica” for four soloists, two choirs and large orchestra by his younger brother Michael Haydn, which was written in response to a commission from the Spanish court.