Franz Joseph Haydn:
Mass in D minor
(Lord Nelson Mass)
Friday, November 11, at 7:30 pm
St. Andrew's Cathedral, Honolulu, HI
Honor our men and women in uniform this Veteran's Day with Joseph Haydn's Mass in D minor (Lord Nelson Mass). The Honolulu Symphony Chorus will be joined in this performance by members of the new Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra and conducted by OCS Artistic Director, Esther S. Yoo. Soloists will include Rachel Schutz, soprano; Anna Mooy, mezzo soprano; Guy Merola, tenor; and Nicholas Walters, Bass. Our special guests, Hawaiʻi Pacific University's International Vocal Ensemble will open the concert with music by American composers including familiar patriotic texts as well as a rousing gospel number.
The Mass in D Minor (Hob. XXII:11), is one of fourteen masses written by Franz Joseph Haydn. It is one of the six masses written near the end of his life which are now seen as a culmination of Haydn's liturgical composition. The summer of 1798, when it was written, was a terrifying time for Austria, and when Haydn finished this Mass, his own title, in the catalogue of his works, was "Missa in Angustiis" or "Mass for Troubled Times." What Haydn did not know when he wrote the Mass — but what he and his audience heard (perhaps on the very day of the first performance September 15) was that on Aug. 1, Napoleon had been dealt a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile by British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. Because of this coincidence, the Mass gradually acquired the nickname "Lord Nelson Mass." The title became indelible when, in 1800, Lord Nelson himself visited the Palais Esterházy, accompanied by his British mistress, Lady Hamilton, and may have heard the Mass performed.
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Tickets are now on sale! $20 general admission, $15 for military and students with ID. Contact us for further information!
