Sunday, 12th September
11.00 am, St Mary’s Church
The Redbourn 900 Festival concludes today with a huge variety of activities. The day starts with a celebration of the patronal saint of St Mary’s Parish Church.
Morning Worship includes a full choral celebration of the Eucharist with a setting of Haydn’s St Nicholas Mass, accompanied by an orchestra.
This concise and charming mass setting dates from 1772 and is thought to have been written for Haydn’s patron and employer, Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy possibly to record his thanks to the Prince for ending the custom of keeping his court musicians away from home and families until just before Christmas. For this was the same year when, in an outbreak of mild-mannered industrial action, Haydn wrote his Farewell Symphony to register the musicians’ displeasure at their perennial extended stay in the prince’s Hungarian palace. It made its point and the court set out for its German home in Eisenstadt soon after.
The Mass is beautifully written with wit and charm, particularly in the orchestration. The Gloria and Credo are despatched in minimum time by running several strands of the text concurrently, in flagrant disobedience of the church requirement that the liturgy be clearly audible to the worshippers. A royal chapel would not have felt obliged to observe such disciplines and the resulting work is a masterpiece of intricate economy. There is exquisite writing for solo quartet throughout but never more movingly than in the Et Incarnatus section of the Creed.
No charge for admission to the Service. Please arrive early.
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