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Michael Haydn
The King's Consort, Robert King

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)
Hilary Summers (alto)
James Gilchrist (tenor)
Peter Harvey (bass)
 

The King's Consort's latest foray into the studio brings us a thrilling new recording of Michael Haydn's Requiem, and reveals the little-known St Ursula Mass to be a truly exceptional work.  The Requiem was composed in response to tragedy, the death of Haydn's patron - the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg - providing the official cloak for an outpouring of grief as much inspired by the death of the composer's infant daughter.  In itself the work is a memorable and confident example of the genre, but its deserved fame has been somewhat eclipsed by the many striking similarities between it and the Mozart requiem.  When Wolfgang Amadeus composed what was to be his last (and most famous) work, a full twenty years after Haydn's, he doubtless intended it as the highest of praise to his friend, from whom he borrowed melodies, rhythms, scoring and structure.  Such points of musicological interest must no longer be allowed to obscure the worth of Haydn's original magnum opus.  Some three dozen Mass-settings by Michael Haydn survive.  The Missa in honorem Sanctae Ursula (also known as the Chiemsee-Messe) currently rests in relative obscurity, being performed rarely and hardly touched in the recording studio.  And yet Robert King, his choir, soloists and orchestra here demonstrate this to be a work of great beauty and intense power, with a place both in the liturgy and as a showcase for excellent performances.

2 CD set.

St. Ursula

Feast Day: Tridentine Calendar - 10/21 Patron Of: Students, Teachers, Catholic Education, Educators, School Children, Holy Death Profile     Legendary princess, the daughter of a Christian British king. She travelled Europe in company of either 11 or 11,000 fellow maidens; it is believed that the 11,000 number resulted from a misreading of the term "11M" which indicated 11 Martyrs, but which a copyist took for a Roman numeral. Ursula and her company were tortured to death to get them to renounce their faith, and old paintings of them show many of the women being killed in various painful ways. Namesake for the Ursuline Order, founded for the education of young Catholic girls and women. All information used with permission of the Patron Saint Index.

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