We are delighted to have heard news from the Winchester Music Club. As part of the celebrations leading to their centenary in 2025, they will be performing all the extant and surviving masses of Joseph Haydn, who came to Winchester in August 1794 during one of his visits to England.

The Club writes:

“These twelve settings of the mass, which will be performed over eight concerts between 2017 and 2024, include some of the finest church music ever written. In particular, the last six masses, composed for the annual celebrations of the Feast of our Lady, cemented Haydn’s reputation across Europe at the end of the 18th century. Although often overlooked, in this area Haydn’s achievements exceed even those of his younger contemporary, Mozart.

All Haydn’s masses have been recorded several times, but we do not think that any choir has attempted to perform them all live in concert as a series. Seven of the twelve will be receiving their first performances by the Winchester Music Club.

Other choral and instrumental works by Haydn will also feature during the series, including settings of the Te Deum and Salve Regina (his earliest known choral work), and concertos for various instruments, most notably his famous Trumpet Concerto. The same concerts will include music by other composers who were contemporaries of Joseph Haydn: Mozart, Beethoven, and Michael Haydn, brother of Joseph. The cycle will conclude in March 2024 at the end of our 99th season, with a performance of Haydn’s last mass, the Harmoniemesse.

The series will be launched on 19 March 2017 in New Hall, Winchester College, with a performance of Haydn’s most famous mass, the so-called ‘Nelson’ Mass (more properly the Missa in Angustiis), along with Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and an organ concerto by Haydn, with Jamal Sutton as soloist.”