2.30pm
Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir
Worcester Chamber Orchestra
Conducted by Stephen Shellard
Tewkesbury Abbey
Buy tickets: £20/ £15 /£7

Bach - Cantata 147
Haydn - Harmoniemesse

Soloists: Emily van Evera (Soprano)
Susanna Spicer (Alto)
Allan Clayton (Tenor)
Charles Pott (Bass)

The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated by Bach's composition of at least two cantatas specific to the celebration including BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben in 1723. Cantatas served a particular purpose in the Lutheran liturgy. The principal service of the day followed the order of a Roman Mass - the Gospel was sung from the altar followed by the performance of the Cantata, the libretto of which was based as far as possible on the gospel text.

Haydn's late Masses were written for the successive birthday celebrations of his employer's wife. The Harmoniemesse is both the last of the series and his last completed work of any size. It evidently cost the aged composer a great deal of effort for he wrote to Prince Esterházy that he was ‘labouring wearily on the new Mass'. Despite his apparent difficulties the completed Harmoniemesse is a work of great grandeur and elaboration with no sign that Haydn's powers were in decline. The title ‘wind-band mass' describes the unusually prominent way that the wind instruments are used. The entire work could be thought of as the equivalent of three symphonic movements, the first consisting of the Kyrie and the Gloria, the second the Credo, and the third the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.