Haydn's chief biographer,
H. C. Robbins Landon, has written that this mass "is arguably Haydn's greatest single composition". Written in 1798, it is one of the six late masses by Haydn for the
Esterhazy family composed after taking a short hiatus, during which elaborate church music was inhibited by the
Josephinian reforms of the 1780s. The late sacred works of Haydn are regarded as masterworks, influenced by the experience of his
London symphonies. They highlight the soloists and chorus while allowing the orchestra to play a prominent role. Owing to the political and financial instability of this period in European history, Haydn's patron
Nikolaus II dismissed the Feldharmonie, or wind band octet, shortly before Haydn wrote the
Missa in angustiis for the Princess's name day. Later editors and arrangers added what they perceived to be missing woodwind parts, but the original scoring has again become the accepted choice for modern performances. Though Haydn's reputation was at its peak in 1798, he wrote this mass, and his world was in turmoil. French forces under
Napoleon had won four major battles against the Austrian army in less than a year. The previous year, in early 1797, French armies had crossed the Alps and threatened Vienna itself. In May 1798, Napoleon led an expeditionary force which
invaded Egypt with the stated aims of securing French commercial interests in the
Middle East, cutting off British trade routes to the
East Indies and establishing a scientific presence in Egypt. The summer of 1798 was therefore a terrifying time for Austria, and when Haydn finished this mass, his own title, in the catalogue of his works, was
Missa in angustiis (Mass for troubled times). What Haydn did not know when he wrote the mass, but what he and his audience heard (perhaps on September 15, the day of the very first performance), was that on 1 August, the
French Navy had been dealt a crushing defeat at the
Battle of the Nile by a British fleet under Rear-Admiral
Horatio Nelson. Because of this coincidence, the mass gradually acquired the nickname
Nelson Mass. The title became indelible when, in 1800, Nelson himself visited the
Palais Esterházy accompanied by his mistress
Emma, Lady Hamilton, and may have heard the mass conducted by Haydn whom he would meet shortly afterwards. Haydn's original title may also have come from illness and exhaustion at that time, which followed his supervision of the first performances of
The Creation, completed a few months earlier. More simply, it may have sprung from the challenge of composing without the desired instrumentation. The solo parts for two of the vocal quartet are virtuosic: the bass line was perhaps written for the accomplished Christian Specht, and the soprano line, even more demanding, could have been written for Barbara Pilhofer or Therese Gassmann. The piece was premiered 23 September 1798 at the
town parish church (now cathedral), a last minute venue change from the
Bergkirche in
Eisenstadt. ==Movements==