But the result, far from being an incoherent patchwork, has a compelling musical unity coupled to a profound spirituality: a European work of art at least the equal of anything from humankind anywhere at any time.īroadcast live from St Martin-in-the-Fields and introduced by Martin Handley. For this major project, which he probably never heard performed, Bach reworked a lot of his older music, both sacred and profane. But written towards the end of his life, it seems to have been a way of summing up all he was musically and spiritually capable of – of leaving something for posterity – after a lifetime of professional underappreciation and what must have felt like ephemeral drudgery. No one knows for sure why Bach, a lifelong Lutheran, chose to make a full Latin setting of the Catholic Mass. So as part of his 80th birthday celebrations, it's no surprise that he has chosen to conduct his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in a performance of the Mass in B minor, widely regarded as the summit of Bach's religious music. Bach: Sacred Vocal Works Review by James Manheim This monster box set - nine CDs - is aimed at buyers in the process of doing what used to be called building a classical library. Sir John Eliot Gardiner has spent a large part of his musical life immersed in Bach's liturgical music and is acknowledged as one of its foremost interpreters.
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