Vanhal: Missa Pastoralis / Missa Solemnis

I first heard Vanhal on an LP of the Weller Quartet compilation called "Mozart's Quartet Party." Vanhal's music is clean and scrupulously elegant, as one can hear on the Naxos releases of the symphonies. It is good to know that this elegant ethic carries over into his masses. Yet his music does not have the "shallow elegant" Roccoco style from which some of J.C. Bach's music suffers, as fine and entertaining a composer as he is. Vanhal's masses reflect honest, unpretentious faith without being simplistic or amateurish.

Although the Baroque period's stars have grown more numerous that the Bach-Handel-Vivaldi triumvirate (Fasch, Albinoni, Charpentier, Zelenka, and Alessandro Scarlatti have received attention recently), the classical era has largely remained confined to Mozart and Haydn, with growing interst in CPE Bach (who is a remarkable composer in his own right). Although not posssessing the genius of Mozart and Haydn, Vanhal's genial style and warm outlook will provide a welcome addition to the classical period's circle of composers.

The Missa Pastoralis announces itself immediately as being in the pastoral mass tradition, with the Kyrie's lilting dance rhythm, choral echo effects, and drone figures in the strings. Some of its passages sound like the choral equivalent of Baroque Christmas concertos and sinfonias. The scoring is light, with sweet-sounding high trumpets giving the work a special aura. A true charmer.

The Missa Solemnis is a weightier work and one of real power. This is an exact contemporary of Mozart's famous "Coronation" Mass, but while the Mozart has prettier tunes, Vanhal's mass has more muscle and ingenuity. In fact, I'll take this Missa Solemnis any day over most of Mozart's too-operatic choral music. Vanhal can actually write a fugue that is both musically correct and emotionally fulfilling! And there are individualistic touches that show his great sensitivity to the text, such as the somber, inward music accorded the "Et expecto" section of the Credo. It has the effect of the traditional moment of silence, hat over breast, before the "Et vitam" sweeps all before it. If the quicksilver passage for obliggato organ and the sweet-natured violin solo of the Gloria don't leave you smiling, you took a wrong turn at the Varese bin!

Uwe Grodd is proving himself one of the most sensitive conductors in Naxos' fine stable of 18th-century specialists, and his performances here are no exception. His chorus and small orchestra are perfect partners as well. Of the mostly fine soloists, only the wobbly tenor is not quite up to snuff. A detailed recording with just the right church-like ambience completes a sterling package.