Concerto Koln

Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Concerto Köln & Peter Dijkstra – Bach: Mass in B Minor (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:17:35 minutes | 733 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BR-Klassik

The Mass in B minor, one of the greatest musical legacies of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), was written from 1724 until two years before his death, and was not premiered until 1835. In addition to the Bavarian Radio Chorus, this live recording features renowned soloists and Concerto Köln, an ensemble celebrated for its historical performance practice and a longtime partner of the Chorus.

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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Concerto Köln, Peter Dijkstra – J.S. Bach: St John Passion, BWV 245 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:57:15 minutes | 1,76 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BR Klassik

The definitive version of the ‘St John Passion’ by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed every year in concert halls and churches around the world, does not exist – or, at least, cannot be found in Bach’s own performance materials. Over the last few decades, Bach researchers have removed much of the magic from a work we all believed was familiar, in several respects. It is neither an oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra nor a self-contained work with a fnal manuscript version. The Cantor of St Thomas did embark on such a version in 1739. 15 years after the frst performance he started making a meticulous fair copy of the score and coupled it with a thorough revision – but he suddenly broke off this new copy towards the end of the frst part, just before the chorale Wer hat dich so geschlagen (no. 11). It was only years later that he had a copyist complete it, but Bach never transferred the new versions of movements one to ten into his performance material.
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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Concerto Köln, Peter Dijkstra – J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:58:42 minutes | 1,75 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BR-Klassik

Nearly 70 years after the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Swiss publisher Hans Georg Nägeli undertook the daring task of preparing the manuscript score of the Mass in B minor for publication. In 1818, to mark the occasion, the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the Mass as “the Greatest Musical Work of All Times and All People.” This fulsome formulation was primarily a sales strategy: Nägeli was wooing subscribers for a composition that, until then, had been noticed only by a small number of cognoscenti. The announcement does sound rather pompous to our ears today, but the Swiss publisher’s judgement was a sound one. From the mid-19th century onwards, the Mass in B minor gradually became a fxed part of the repertoire for all major choirs, and is now an integral part of the worldwide concert business. However, unsolved questions incidental to this unusual work and its success story continue to preoccupy musicologists to this day: Why is an overall title page missing from the original manuscript, with its four individual folders? Were the four different sections, with their different orchestration, ever conceived as a single and cohesive mass? Was the work composed for any special occasion? And was a performance of the monumental mass even conceivable in around 1750? A look at the history of the music and its structure can bring us one step closer to possible answers.
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