The mature sacred-music language of Haydn and Mozart, with its orderly division of major text sections into shorter choruses and arias, may seem to have sprung out of nowhere, for the links between Baroque and Classical in the choral field are mostly missing links from the standpoint of contemporary performance. The Mass No. 12 from Dresden composer Johann David Heinichen heard on this disc dates from early in the eighteenth century, but it helps fill in the gap -- like many of the Haydn and Mozart masses it was what observers of the time called a "number mass," with the Gloria and Sanctus divided into four sections each and the Credo into five (the Kyrie and Agnus dei feature the natural tripartite form). Heinichen's sections are very short, with many of them devoted to some kind of instrumental effect. His fugal movements fall for the most part where Haydn's do, but they too are quite short; they're not impressive pieces of counterpoint. Heinichen's text-setting, on the other hand, is varied and unusual; at several points in the mass he lets the instruments carry the expressive load, deploying the choir in short, rhythmic bursts. The
Dresdner Kammerchor, a university-associated group, has a professional sound. The soloists are a mixed lot. Soprano Monika Frimmer has an unusual vocal timbre somewhat reminiscent of an English horn; it's attractive, but with all the trumpets and horns in Heinichen's virtuoso orchestration it would seem that a bigger, flashier voice was called for. Male alto
Kai Wessel has a better grasp of the dramatic approach needed than does tenor Hermann Oswald, and basses Andreas Scheibner and Egbert Junghanns shine in the most powerful aria in the work, the "Et resurrexit" (which in almost all masses is given to the full choir). The disc is rounded out by a competent Bach Magnificat. Libraries and specialists in music of the eighteenth century will welcome this disc, and its sharply sculpted little blocks of music are of interest to generalist lovers of choral music as well.