J. S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232

Featuring

Julie Roset
Beth Taylor
Lucile Richardot
Emiliano Gonzalez Toro
Christian Immler
Raphaël Pichon

Pygmalion
Johann Sebastian Bach

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Composition History

Bach initially presented a Kyrie and Gloria from the Mass in B minor in 1733 to Friedrich August II, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, to support his application for the title of 'court composer'.

Critical Reception

For a long time, the Mass in B minor's significance was not recognized; Friedrich Smend, its 1954 editor, considered it an arbitrary compilation and its full performance an 'artistic blunder'.

Composition History

The Mass in B minor was not conceived as a single work, but developed over 30 years, with its genesis beginning at Christmas 1724.

Composer Biography

Bach used the period of national mourning after the death of August I, 'the Strong', in 1733, which banned music in churches, to compose the Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass in B minor.

Critical Reception

The Mass in B minor was praised by Zurich music scholar Hans-Georg Nägeli in 1818 as the 'greatest musical work of art of all times and peoples' upon the publication of its first volume.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Bach's Mass in B minor is considered his artistic legacy, comparable to the 'Missae ultimae' of Jan Dismas Zelenka, a Dresden court musician.

Critical Reception

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the composer's son, recognized the Mass in B minor as his father's 'opus summum' and performed its monumental Credo in Hamburg in 1786.