Soloists Teresa Wakim, Paula Murrihy, Thomas Cooley, Sumner Thompson joined Harry and the Society to record Mozart’s Coronation Mass live at Boston’s Symphony Hall during 2012. Mozart’s Mass in C major is one of his most popular and enduring works. Know as the ‘Coronation Mass’ - a nickname it acquired following a performance conducted by Antonio Salieri in 1791 in Prague at the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia - it includes the beautifully tender Agnus Dei. Alongside the Mass on this CD are Mozart’s soprano solo Exsultate jubilate, beautifully performed by Teresa Wakim, and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No 85, which was a favourite of Marie Antoinette, hence its nickname ‘La Reine’, by which it is still known today. Harry Christophers was appointed Artistic Director of Boston’s internationally acclaimed Handel and Haydn Society in 2008. Founded in 1815, the Society is considered the oldest continuously performing arts organisation in the USA and has given the American premieres of major works by Handel, Bach and Haydn, has won a Grammy Award, and celebrates its Bicentennial in 2015.

Haydn Symphony No 85 in B-flat major ‘La Reine’, Mozart Exsultate jubilate K165, Mass in C major K317 ‘Coronation Mass’