The Schopfungsmesse, or Creation Mass, of 1801 is for some reason the least familiar of the six great Mass settings Haydn composed in his old age. Perhaps the mischievous quotation of the cheerful contredanse melody from Adam and Eve’s duet in The Creation has given the work an unjustified reputation for frivolity. In fact, the Creation Mass is no less resplendent or searching than, say, the Nelson Mass or the Harmoniemesse, a glorious affirmation of Haydn’s reverent, optimistic yet by no means naive faith. Even by Haydn’s standards, the work is startling in its exploitation of colourful and dramatic key contrasts, as in the sudden swerve from F major to an apocalyptic fortissimo D flat at “Judicare vivos”; the Benedictus, characteristically, moves from serene pastoral innocence (shades of “With verdure clad” from The Creation) to urgent intensity in its central development; and the sublime G major Agnus Dei has a profound supplicatory fervour extraordinary even among the composer’s many memorable settings of this text.
Both the versions of the Schopfungsmesse listed above, especially the old Guest/St John’s recording on Decca, have their merits. But this new reading eclipses both in the quality of its choir and soloists, the subtlety of Hickox’s direction and the vividness and transparency of the recorded sound. In faster movements like the Kyrie and the openings of the Gloria and Credo, where Marriner can be too stern, even aggressive, and Guest too blithe and bouncy, Hickox strikes just the right balance between dignity and happy, pulsing energy, relishing each of Haydn’s dramatic coups; and he brings a marvellous clarity and verve, and a sure sense of climax, to the chromatically inflected fugues in the Gloria and at “Dona nobis pacem”. Abetted by his first-rate period orchestra, Hickox is always alive to the felicities of Haydn’s scoring, while the 24-strong professional choir are superbly responsive throughout, firm and fresh of tone, maintaining a beautiful, even line in piano and pianissimo (as in the Sanctus, which shows Hickox’s typical care for dynamic shaping), never rasping or bumping on high notes.
Of the uncommonly well-integrated solo quartet the three lower voices appeared in Hickox’s recording of the Theresienmesse (4/96): the mezzo, Pamela Helen Stephen, with more solo opportunities than her colleagues, has a warm, slightly plangent timbre that reminds me of Maureen Lehane. Susan Gritton, the sole newcomer, is a lovely, involving singer with an intense, highly distinctive tone quality. The quartet’s ensemble singing in the Benedictus and Agnus Dei has a rare tenderness and expressive subtlety, in a different class from that in the two rival versions.
My sole reservation over this disc concerns the additional items on offer. The Schopfungsmesse lasts under 44 minutes, leaving room for another substantial piece. But what we get is the alternative version of the Gloria, with the eight ‘Adam and Eve’ bars recomposed at the behest of the Empress Marie Therese, who apparently was not amused at Haydn’s little joke; and the ultra-compressed (6'49'') and instantly forgettable Missa rorate coeli desuper, which David Wyn Jones, in his excellent note, wryly describes as “a reminder of how perfunctory church music in 18th-century Austria could be”. It’s neatly dispatched by Hickox and his forces, but inevitably comes as an absurd anticlimax after the moving, exultant performance of one of Haydn’s greatest works.'