Missa Cellensis

Description

This recording is the first in a collaboration between René Jacobs, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Zürcher Sing-Akademie and Alpha Classics. Between 2025 and 2028, this project will see the release of four albums: this Missa Cellensis, then three volumes devoted to the six last masses composed by Haydn... In 1766, he was commissioned to write a Missa Solemnis, the Latin term for a "luxurious" mass, i.e. with trumpets and timpani: it is the third and largest of Haydn's 14 masses. It was under an erroneous name that the Missa Cellensis of 1766 would remain known until 1975, when a fragment of the autograph score containing the title page, the Kyrie I and the Christe emerged in Bucharest, revealing that Haydn had in fact composed two Missæ Cellenses. It is the first one that is recorded here. René Jacobs brings all his erudition and fervour to the service of this music he loves so much, with the complicity of soloists who have accompanied him for a long time, an orchestra that is also a faithful travelling companion and the remarkable choir of the Sing-Akademie of Zürich.