As a servant of the old aristocracy, Haydn shared its anxiety about the progress of the wars with Revolutionary France; this Mass, with its anxious "Kyrie" and "Benedictus", has always been associated with the relief felt at Nelson's victory in the Battle of the Nile. Like the Te Deum recorded with it here, it was probably performed for him when, two years later, he and Lady Hamilton visited the Esterhazys at Eisenstadt and Nelson and Haydn exchanged gifts. The Esterhazy orchestra had been reduced in size and Haydn wrote this mass for strings, trumpets, drums and organ--the darker passages are memorably bleak and the more joyful and spirited sections always have a grim undertone, in which soloists and chorus often sound as if they are going a good job of keeping their spirits up in the trying times of the work's title. The vocal stars here are Lott and Watkinson, whose solos often help define the mood of particular sections, but the singing is uniformly remarkable. Pinnock and the English Concert help remind us that period performance is not just pedantry, but a way of making well-known scores sound fresh and new. --Roz Kaveney