Masterworks 2 offers an evening of music, written purely for the enjoyment of beauty, juxtaposed with Haydn’s (originally titled) Mass for Troubled Times. Anna Clyne’s Restless Oceans presents a pastoral of the natural world including lyrical melodies as well as tempestuous scenes. The second of Brahms’ two serenades is truly music for music’s sake—a tuneful stroll in the concert hall. Paired with these two works, The Lord Nelson Mass was written for the name day of Princess Esterházy, the wife of Haydn’s patron. The Mass honors Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson’s victory over Napoleon at Aboukir, just off the coast of North Africa at Alexandria in 1798.
