Two musical settings for the catholic Mass, by Joseph Haydn. The Mariazellermesse is the oldest, from 1782. It was written for an officer named Liebe von Kreutzner. Mariazell is a city in the Austrian Alps, now well known for winter sports. Since in 1782 the small city didn’t have the facilities to host this mass, it is doubtful it was actually performed there. The circumstances around the first performance are unknown. The pensioner Von Kreutzner asked Haydn to write it to commemorate any ritual for ennoblement, or for ceremonies in the place of pilgrimage Mariazell was. The latter suggests the first performance was in Mariazell, but the first could just as well have taken place in Vienna.
The other mass on this release is the Heiligmesse, dated 1796. It is so called because of the Sanctus part, with a repeated heilig, heilig, heilig (holy, holy, holy). It was also written for the holy man Bernard von Offida. Bernard was sanctified a hundred years before. Born Domenico Peroni, he was a Capuchin friar from around Ancona in Italy.