Commentary: Haydn’s Mass in C major, performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Manfred Honeck

By Lawrence B. Johnson

Not the least remarkable aspect of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus’ splendid performance of Haydn’s Mass in C major (“Mass in Time of War”) on March 13 was the simple fact the these forces had never before undertaken the work, a masterpiece that stands at the core of the choral repertoire. It’s almost unimaginable that the chorus created by Fritz Reiner and Margaret Hillis back in 1957 hadn’t gotten around to Haydn’s grand Mass in three generations!

So consider this belated CSO premiere a proper fix. Conducted by Manfred Honeck, with the chorus exquisitely prepared by guest director Donald Nally, it was a performance that illuminated the myriad marvels of a transcendent work from Haydn’s late years, when the whole corpus of his symphonies was behind him, a master at his musical zenith.

Beethoven well may have had Haydn’s C major Mass in mind when he composed his Missa Solemnis some 25 years later, in the 1820s. While both works call for the conventional four solo voices, each turns the spotlight on a solitary singer just once. Like the Beethoven, Haydn’s Mass is a collective expression, through and through a choral celebration. It’s also a sublime achievement, as radiant and spirited as it is structurally elegant in both the choral writing and in the integration of chorus and orchestra.

Honeck, music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, shaped a majestic and indeed sparkling account, from the initial upsurge of the Kyrie and the exuberance of the Gloria to the solemnity of the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei’s crowning aura of peace. From the Chicago Symphony, Honeck drew accompaniment of model clarity, linearity and balance. But the night belonged to the chorus, which delivered a performance of textural transparency and expressive precision that felt exceptional even for this reliably burnished ensemble — a credit to visiting director Nally, former chorus master of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera and Opera Philadelphia.

Haydn’s rather generalized use of the solo voices, whether integrated with the chorus or in spotlighted moments, clearly prefigures Beethoven in his great Missa. Just once does Haydn grant one of his soloists a full-blown aria, in the “Et incarnatus” section of the Credo, which baritone Joshua Hopkins imbued with equal measures of gravitas and warmth. The vocal foursome was well matched in Hopkins’ solo companions — soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor Andrew Haji.

As prelude to the Haydn Mass, Honeck offered Scottish composer James MacMillan’s ruminative Larghetto for Orchestra (2017), an arrangement of his Miserere composed eight years earlier. Over its span of 13 minutes, the Larghetto constantly recycles and elaborates a solemn chant-like theme in a harmonically conservative framework that harkens back to Elgar and Vaughan Williams. The music’s spiritual embrace is strengthened by the placement of solo French horn, trumpet and trombone deep in the listening space —  here at the far corners and mid-point of Orchestra Hall’s lower balcony. The CSO delivered a lustrous account of the work, tightly woven and roundly expressive.

Honeck completed the program’s prevailing classicism with a vibrant turn through Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, composed just a few years after Haydn’s Mass. What a shock the 30-year-old Beethoven’s brash, piquant debut symphony must have been to a public nourished on Haydn and Mozart. But as Honeck’s clear-sighted reading also made clear, this radical work gave its first audience every reason to recognize a burgeoning genius in its midst.

The Chicago Symphony’s incisive performance made particularly fine work of Beethoven’s imaginative variations in the second movement — a creative flourish that would prove to be a harbinger of the eloquent second-movement variations of the Fifth Symphony. Honeck’s adroit direction here, together with the CSO’s agile, organic playing, drove home the point.