A good place to start when looking for recordings is BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’ strand. Whilst the particular episode is no longer available in BBC Sounds, on 12 November 2022, Richard Wigmore plumped for the 1999 recording made by Sigiswald Kuijken with La Petite Bande, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Sandra Piau (soprano), Monica Groop (mezzo-soprano), Christoph Prégardien (tenor), and Harry van der Kamp (bass). The mass is accompanied by their rendition of Haydn’s Te Deum.

Our next suggestion is the recording we found in our own collection, the 2010 recording made by Richard Hickox with Collegium Musicum 90, Nancy Argenta (soprano), Pamela Helen Stephen (mezzo soprano), Mark Padmore (tenor), Stephen Varcoe (baritone). Gramophone described Hickox’s reading as “fervent” and “inspiring”, which was good enough for us! The companion work on this disc is Haydn’s Salve Regina in E.

For those interested in classic recordings, there is the 1966 recording made by George Guest with the Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Erna Spoorenberg (soprano), Helen Watts (contralto), Alexander Young (tenor), and Joseph Rouleau (bass). This was released on CD in 2007 but is also lurking out there on YouTube at the time of writing.

For something a little different, Harry Christophers conducts the Handel and Haydn Society in a 2019 release that pairs the mass with Haydn’s Symphony No. 99. The orchestra and chorus are joined by soloists Sumner Thompson, Jeremy Budd, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, and Mireille Asselin.

This really is just a short selection. At the end of the day, listening to any recording (more or less!) is a great way of learning a work, especially if you listen with your score to hand. Just remember, musical interpretations may vary!