Haydn: Nelson Mass / Vivaldi: Gloria / Handel: Zadok the Priest [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Joseph Haydn (Composer), Antonio Vivaldi (Composer), George Frederick Handel (Composer), David Willcocks (Conductor), Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (Orchestra), English Chamber Orchestra (Orchestra), London Symphony (Orchestra), King's College Choir (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: King's College Choir
• Orchestra: Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, English Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony
• Conductor: David Willcocks
• Composer: Joseph Haydn, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frederick Handel
• Audio CD (March 14, 2000)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00004C8T9
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,663 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #4 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Anthems
  • #23 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Masses

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Performance of the Nelson Mass, April 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Haydn: Nelson Mass / Vivaldi: Gloria / Handel: Zadok the Priest (Audio CD)

This is a very powerful performance of the Nelson Mass, and the soprano does a beautiful job. The acoustics inside the cathedral are good, and the CD booklet has lots of historical information and plenty of photos. If you're not familiar with Haydn's choral music, many of them have a powerful, thunderous tone very different from much of his instrumental pieces. If you like this mass, you will love the opening and finale of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ. And, of course, the great oratorio, the Creation.

I love Vivaldi's Gloria, but the first movement of this performance of the Gloria, however, goes way too slow and feels so heavy. Buy this CD for the performance of the Nelson Mass and consider buying another performance of Vivaldi's Gloria.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four decades of excellence, April 23, 2004

By 

Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Haydn: Nelson Mass / Vivaldi: Gloria / Handel: Zadok the Priest (Audio CD)

This magnificent Haydn mass was recorded when period performance was still a glint in the eye of authenticists, a half-dozen years before Harnoncourt's original embarassment with Bach's Brandenburg concertos. David Willcocks was among a handful of conductors who exhibited temperament, moderation and drama to record the Haydn masses in the 1950s and 1960s in recordings that still have not been surpassed.

Haydn was a great old man, full of fun and humor, not above poking fun at himself, his employers and his society. But one thing he did not poke fun at was God and his relationship with the Almighty. While this mass is technically about Nelson's victory at the Nile, it is clear the driving force behind the drama was Father Superior.

For this reason, the ultra-dramatic, almost cinematic, approach used by Bernstein and Pinnock, while effective, is inappropriate. They overflow with drama but lack dignity. Christian faith is nowhere to be found, neither is self-denial in the face of glory.

Willcocks' singers are wonderful. I have some quibbles with the Latin pronunciation but his singers are miles ahead of the competitors including more recent recordings by Gardiner and Hickox.

The period performance crowd has generally done a nice job with Haydn but none project his temperament as well as Wilcocks, Simon Preston and George Guest, who together recorded all the great Haydn masses in a 10-disk set London 448518). Some of the better performances -- the Nelson, Harmony, Kettledrum and little organ masses, among others -- are in a London twofer you can buy for a very modest cost (ASIN: B0000041MA).

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not the best, June 22, 2005

By 

Fernando Cisneros (Mexico City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haydn: Nelson Mass / Vivaldi: Gloria / Handel: Zadok the Priest (Audio CD)

I was looking for a Nelson Mass, so a friend gave me this one. The soprano is good, but I sometimes find her voice a little bit waving. The bass is really a bariton with a dark voice.
The problem is that it's recorded in ADD format, so there's lot of noise.

If you're going to buy a Nelson Mass... better buy....
Haydn: Missa in Angustiis "Nelson Mass" - Te Deum / Lott, Watkinson, M. Davies, Wilson-Johnson; Pinnock