Credits:

Gabriel Hollander

Description:

[The World of the *Missa Brevis*: A Universal Message Condensed into a Brief Composition]This album pairs exquisite Masses by Mozart and Haydnworks that, strangely enough, are rarely performed or recordedwith a new *Missa Brevis* by contemporary Belgian composer Fabian Fiorini. Missa Brevis means Short Mass. In the Catholic world of the mid-18th century, there was criticism that Mass music, when embellished with multiple movements, exceeded the appropriate length for the ritual; consequently, the Missa Brevisa Mass that could be sung in its entirety in about 20 minutesbegan to be composed. In Haydns Little Organ Mass from his middle period (here, the organ solo section of the Benedictuswhich gives the work its subtitleis performed on the violin), the composer employs a technique in the Gloria that has each soloist sing a different part of the text simultaneously, compressing the performanc