In March 1781, one of Haydn’s friends, Anton Liebe, a member of an old and distinguished Austrian military family, was raised to the nobility. He seems to have asked his friend, Joseph Haydn, to write a festive “thank offering” in the form of a Mass for the famous pilgrimage church of Mariazell, in Styria. Haydn began the work in 1782, and recently the original parts to the Missa Cellensis were found in the organ loft of the splendid baroque church at Mariazell.

Haydn’s “Mariazellermesse” has...