Hummel: Mass in D, Mass in B Flat Major & Alma Virgo: Susan Gritton, Richard Hickox, Collegium Musicum 90

Hummel: Mass in D, Mass in B Flat Major & Alma Virgo
Susan Gritton, Richard Hickox, Collegium Musicum 90

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)

Mass, Op.11 in D Major (Edited by Stephen Hogger)

Mass, Op.77 in B Flat Major (Edited by Stephen Hogger)

Alma Virgo

Susan Gritton: Soprano

Collegium Musicum 90

Richard Hickox

Recording: Blackheath Halls, 1-3 October 2001

Year: 2002

"Chorus and orchestra perform with great skill, fervor, clarity and impact. Their conviction and spirit are contagious and make a very persuasive case - perhaps and best - for this fine music. If you love the classical-era mass, you will cherish this recording - and you will, as I do, keenly anticipate succeeding volumes in this long-overdue series."  - Gramophone's 2003 Choral Record of the Year 

More info about Richard Hickox : Here

More info about this album & to listen to the samples : Here

Gramophone Awards 2003 : Winner of category Choral Music

Gramophone Music Magazine Editor's Choice Disc of the Month December 2002

Reviews:

Gramophone Awards November 2003 (Click on images to enlarge)

 The classical good CD & DVD guide 2005 : the most authoritative guide to the best classical CDs and DVDs"

Hummel Vocal

Masses

Mass in B flat, Op 77. Mass in D, Op 1 1 1 .

Offertorium, 'Ainna Virgo', Op 893^

^Susan Gritton sop Collegium Musicum

90 / Richard Hickox

, , Chandos Chaconne CHAN0681

\wards (76 nninutes: DDD) Texts and translations

"^^^^ included ©OOO

When the glories of Haydn's late Masses have been widely appreciated, it's sad that Hummel's have been so

neglected. They are for chorus and orchestra alone, without soloists, which may have deterred potential

performers. However, while they can't quite match late Haydn or Beet- hoven in originality, they're lively,

beautifully written, and full of striking ideas, inspiring Hickox and his team to performances here just as

electrifying as those they have given of Haydn, and just as vividly recorded.

Hummel follows Haychi in both Masses in his fondness for fugues. Similarly, he follows Haydn in offering joyfully energetic settings of 'Dona nobis pacem', only unlike Haydn he doesn't end either Mass on a fortissimo cadence, instead fading doMoi the final phrases, maybe for Uturgical reasons in the context of a church per-

formance. Hummel, like Haydn and Beethoven before him, fully brings out the drama of the lihturgy, though in both settings of 'Et resurrexit' he begins not with a sudden fonissimo but with a rising a-escendo, as though a crowd of bystanders are gradually appreciating the wonder of it.

Another symboUc point is that the Mass in B flat, dating from 1810, the year before Hummel left theEsterhazy court, includes a setting of the Credo with distinctive unison and octave passages for the chorus, as though to emphasise unity of behef In both masses the settings of the Sanctus are surprisingly brief, even perfunctory, yet the musical ideas could not be more striking, with a gently flowing 6/8 setting in the D major work and a bold

setting in the B flat Mass which crams into the shortest span surprisingly varied ideas.

Richard Hickox's splendid Gramophone Award- winning Chandos issue of two of Hummel's Masses alerted us to the vigour and imagination of his choral writing, with none of the note- spinning that occasionally mars his keyboard writing.

 Thanks to the imagination of Richard Hickox, we're finally able to discover the joys of Hum- mel's Masses. An extremely fine disc.

Gramophone Music Magazine Disc of the Momnth December 2002

BBC music magazine December 2002

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