The Handel & Haydn Society coupled the Requiem Mass settings of Michael Haydn (1737-1806), MH 155 with Mozart’s  K. 626 at Symphony Hall last weekend to open its 210^th season. Michael Haydn’s music today is not as celebrated or frequently played as that of his elder brother Josef (the second namesake of the performing ensemble); nevertheless, Michael’s requiem impressed Mozart enough  to take it as a model for his own setting 19 years later. As both composers spent some years in Salzburg, they collaborated a number of times, e.g., both Wolfgang and his father Leopold performed in the 1772 premiere of Haydn’s requiem, written for the funeral of Archbishop Schrattenbach of Salzburg. H+H’s clever programming allowed the large audience to hear both requiems consecutively. The Handel + Haydn chorus and orchestra, conducted by Artistic Director Jonathan Cohen, welcomed four soloists: soprano Lucy Crowe, mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor, tenor Duke Kim, and bass-baritone Brandon Cedel.

One could hear parallels between the two works from the start: the strings in the Introit introductions featured more motion (eighth notes) in the bass supporting sustained upper voices; the choral parts entered individually, starting with the bass and moving upward; brass punctuated the string texture and the chorus sang in rhythmic unison for increased drama at key points; etc. Cohen and his musicians subtly pointed up Haydn’s chain of suspensions in both orchestra and chorus. The performers always attended to balances, as when the faster-moving violins following Exaudi orationem meam emerged while the focus remained on the chorus. At the final Kyrie eleison a Picardy third provided an unexpected ray of light (though it turned out to be the first of many).

While Haydn followed earlier composers in not graphically depicting the terrors of the Dies irae, the movement did not lack drama. Haydn here offered more extensive solos to the quartet members, who distinguished themselves, and alternated the collective quartet with the larger chorus to fine effect. The interplay of the imitative writing of the choral Amen with the quartet’s Dona eis requiem provided a particularly striking highlight.

The prayer of Domine Jesu Christe featured call-and-response writing between solo tenor Kim and chorus as well as between solo bass Cedel and the solo quartet. While Haydn largely eschewed word-painting, a fine exception occurred at de profundo lacu (from the bottomless pit) with a descending sequence of daring harmonies in chorus and orchestra. The section ended with an energetic fugue; Cohen and the H+H musicians kept the counterpoint clear and the texture airy. Solo mezzo Taylor provided a warm Hostias et preces followed by Kim and Cedel in affecting duet. A vigorous return of the previously heard choral fugue ended the movement.

Though exclamatory, Haydn’s Sanctus diverged from other composers’ settings in its florid accompaniment—still more so in the Benedictus—while the two Hosannas began gently with the solo quartet before unleashing the excitement of the full chorus. The three verses of Agnus Dei commenced with sweetly humble personal addresses to the Lamb of God by Crowe, Cedel, and Kim, joined soon by the full chorus (“give them eternal rest”). Taylor tenderly handled the chromatically rising phrase of Lux aeterna (possibly another instance of Haydn’s rare word-painting) before the other soloists joined her. In another parallel with Mozart, Haydn adapted the theme of “And with his stripes” from Handel’s Messiah, with its dramatic diminished seventh, for the fugue subject of Cum sanctis tuis. The combination of quasi-legato articulation, well-judged balances, and brisk tempo made this a high point of the requiem. In a beseeching echo of the opening movement, the solo quartet revisited the seminal text Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis (Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and may light perpetual shine on them). The requiem then concluded emphatically with a climactic repeat of the Cum sanctis tuis fugue.

For Mozart’s requiem, Cohen opted for the excellent completion by Robert Levin, the noted pianist and Mozart scholar (who was in the audience) rather than the more traditional but far from ideal completion by Mozart’s student Franz Süssmayr. The composer enhanced the dark and troubled D minor of the orchestral introduction of his Introit by replacing the clarinets Michael Haydn had used with basset horns, which are similar but have a lower range and more veiled tone. Cohen found a somber tempo that still moved, avoiding any lugubrious affect. The movement concludes with Mozart’s own adaptation of the same Handel chorus that Haydn used (“And with his stripes we are healed”). Mozart’s version makes greater demands on the chorus (16^th-note melismas as opposed to Haydn’s 8^th-notes), but the singers gave us exemplary clarity and, with the orchestra, built excitement with chromatic rising sequences near the end, concluding dramatically on bare fifths.

Perhaps paving the way for the Romantic settings of the requiem, Mozart’s Dies irae offers a more dramatic depiction of the day of wrath; the precision of the orchestra as it executed its furious accompaniment and the choral exclamations that moved in block chords conveyed purposeful punishment, not general chaos. Moreover, Mozart had a freer hand for word-painting than his predecessor: the bass section’s accented half-step alternations at Quantus tremor est futurus (What a trembling there will be), reinforced by timpani and lower instruments, suggested an earthquake as much as bodies trembling. The solo trombonist (the program did not indicate a principal player) made an effective Tuba mirum spargens sonum (The trumpet spreading its wondrous sound); bass-baritone Cedel had the necessary resonance in his bass notes here as Mozart required him to jump back and forth between high and low registers. At Rex tremendae majestatis (King of tremendous majesty), Cohen’s double-dotted rhythms in chorus and orchestra not only evoked royalty but heightened the contrast with the final woeful plea for salvation. The four soloists made a beguiling appeal in the Recordare, individually and collectively, with notable expressivity at “may such great effort not be in vain.” The tenors’ and basses’ powerful pronouncements about the consignment of the accursed to hellfire in Confutatis maledictis formed maximum contrast with the sopranos’ and altos’ meek beseeching to be called among the blessed. Still another study in contrasts, the Lacrimosa alternated between light and darkness, hope and mourning, power and supplication. The section concluded stirringly with a fugal chorus (Amen) in unconventional triple time, constructed by Levin based on a sketch left by the composer.

Unlike Haydn’s setting, Mozart’s Sanctus featured the more standard expansiveness and major-mode celebration; in the whirling, triple-time Hosanna, the crisp, clean execution of chorus and orchestra left one exhilarated. Using turbulent, chromatic accompaniment, the composer’s three addresses to the Lamb of God were more urgently imploring than the humble prayers previously heard, yet these alternated with gentle requests (“Grant them rest perpetual”) and expressive woodwind interludes. Crowe contributed a final luminous solo (“May light perpetual shine on them”) in B flat major before the chorus took over, setting us up for the concluding fugue back in D minor, again using the Handel subject but setting different text (Cum sanctis tuis). As before, the perfectly tuned bare fifths of the final chord ended with a very stark and dramatic effect.

I feel a special gratitude to the Handel & Haydn Society for presenting a nearly forgotten (undeservedly) work by the younger Haydn alongside the Mozart masterpiece it audibly influenced. This concert supplied both a musical feast and a fascinating lesson in music history, delivered in a superb performance.

Geoffrey Wieting holds Bachelor’s degrees in organ and Latin from Oberlin College and a Master’s degree in collaborative piano from New England Conservatory. He is Organist of First Parish Church of Weston as well as a freelance organist, collaborative pianist and vocal coach. He sings with the Back Bay Chorale and serves on the Board of Directors of the Old West Organ Society.