Bach: Mass In B Minor / High Mass BWV 232 DVD

Completed just a year before the end of the composer's life, Bach saw his great Latin Mass in B Minor (1749) as concluding his vast body of work. Indeed, combining new music with material from previous cantatas spanning over two decades, musicologist Philipp Spitta noted, "should all of Bach's compositions become lost, the Mass in B Minor alone would for all times give testimony of a man as if with the force of divine revelation". This performance is very much part of a living musical tradition, as the Neubeuern Choral Society was founded by conductor Enoch zu Guttenberg... in 1967, developing a local century-old Bavarian musical culture into a choir of international repute. Together with the Orchester der Klangverwaltung and the five international vocal soloists these forces seem almost to fill the small church in which the performance is given. Perhaps inspired by the setting, this is a beautiful, and where necessary rousing, account, Guttenberg enthusiastically conducting even with one arm in a sling. The talented, comparatively youthful soloists complement each other well; tenor Deon van der Walt and soprano Anna Korondi are especially notable. On the DVD: The absence of texts either in subtitle form or the booklet is a serious drawback. There's nothing remotely approaching a special feature, but the anamorphically enhanced 16:9 picture is very strong compared to many older classical music transfers. The sound cleanly captures the church acoustic. --Gary S Dalkin [show more]

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