“I myself, who was christened in Debrecen more than half a century ago as a “thick-necked Calvinist”, began to think as the Calvin anniversary approached that it would be a good thing to explore the hidden, invisible but clearly discernable underground channels between Calvinist congregational singing and Hungarian folk music, chronicle songs and early music. To illuminate them brightly, make them usable and modern.
This is what I and my colleagues are trying to do in the genre of world music. I am planning Hungarian Cancionale as an easily organised and movable, inspired chamber music production that we would like to take to Calvinist churches. To conduct a dialogue together with the audience with the heavenly powers, in our own language. Preserving the musical relics of several centuries but also renewing them. Respecting the traditions of congregational singing, but modernising the instrumental sound. Preserving and strengthening the desire of people today for faith, community and cohesion.” Ferenc Kiss

“It is well known that Joseph Haydn, the excellent composer, cannot always curb his extravagances. Many of his church compositions are imbued not with the spirit of sacred gravity befitting the temple of the Lord, but with a comic, profane spirit. Not to mention a hundred glaring details, it is sufficient to refer to a certain Agnus Dei in which the kettle drum represents the heartbeat.” Haydn’s younger contemporary, the purist church musician von Mastiaux is referring in this passage to the Agnus of the Mise in tempore belli. The kettle-drum and trumpets also remind us of the threatening atmosphere of the Napoleonic Wars that were taking place when the work was composed in 1796.
The Mise in tempore belli is the first of the six great masses that Haydn wrote to greet the wife of Nicholas Esterházy II on her name-day. The Saint Nicholas Mass composed twenty-four years earlier, in 1772, was also intended for a name-day, for December 6, the feast of the patron saint of Prince Nicholas. Coming immediately after the storms of the Farewell Symphony, this mass radiates joie de vivre – as though Haydn were expressing his gratitude to the prince for his positive response to the “warning strike” of the symphony.

http://www.szentistvanzene.hu/page.php?id=1012

Conductor: László Kovács
With: Zsuzsanna Skoff, Andrea Meláth, János Szerekován, Zsolt Haja – voice, Éva Dúlfalvy – violin, ELTE Béla Bartók Choir and University Concert Orchestra

Both of the oratorios on the programme can be linked to the singing empress, Maria Teresa Carolina, wife of Emperor Francis I. She commissioned the Te Deum, and she is said to have participated as solo soprano at a performance of the Theresienmesse, hence the popular name of the work. Although the sound of battles of the Napoleonic wars is echoed in the Theresienmesse composed in 1799, this is the most tenderly lyrical of the six late masses. The unusual feature of the Te Deum completed by 1800 is that it dresses the Gregorian Te Deum melody in the garb of classical music. Since it was customary to sing this hymn at thanksgiving services after victorious battles, it is possible that Haydn’s work greeted Admiral Nelson on his visit to Eszterháza after the victory of Abukir Bay.
The G major violin concerto, an early composition, provides an interesting contrast to Haydn’s late works. It is dated to 1769, but considering its old-fashioned style it could have been written before he entered Esterházy service in 1761.