Franz Joseph Haydn became the most important Austrian composer during the central part of the eighteenth century. His early career was not particularly impressive, but from 1761 he produced a series of works that remain at the centre of today’s standard repertoire. His immense catalogue includes symphonies, operas, oratorios and string quartets, as well as fourteen Masses. The Missa in angustiis (Mass in anxious times), a particularly dramatic and emotional work, was written during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, and is now more commonly known as the Nelson Mass in honour of the British admiral for whom the Mass was performed in 1800.