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

Featuring:

Núria Rial – soprano
Anna Lucia Richter – mezzo-soprano
Werner Güra – tenor
Gerrit Illenberger – bass
accentus
Insula orchestra

Conductor:

Laurence Equilbey

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, and at the same time its last great synthesising master. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he never undertook study trips abroad during his career, nor did he compose in the most fashionable genre of the time, opera. Yet he produced an enormous oeuvre filled with a multitude of crowning moments. One of his outstanding works is the monumental Mass in B minor, which is exceptional in many respects.

Bach – The Fifth Evangelist:

It is unusual that this Lutheran master undertook to set to music the missa tota – the complete Latin mass cycle comprising the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei – when the services of his church at that time only featured shorter Kyrie–Gloria masses for the congregation. It is also surprising that the creation of the mass was not supported by any form of commission. It is unique that this vast composition does not represent a single period in the composer’s life, but is instead a compilation drawn from several phases of his career, selecting from at least a quarter of a century of music, while many movements are reworkings of earlier pieces (often originally in German).

The work its composer never heard in full:

Given all this, it is truly admirable that this mosaic-like composition still conveys a sense of stylistic unity. Finally, it is thought-provoking that this great work, created towards the end of Bach’s career as one of his most ambitious undertakings, was probably never performed during his lifetime.

The conductor for this production, the Frenchwoman Laurence Equilbey, studied with masters such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Claudio Abbado, and Eric Ericson. From the beginning, she has conducted the ensembles she founded herself, and alongside masterpieces of the Baroque, Romantic, and Classical periods, she is also open to performing rediscovered rarities, including works by female composers. Her choir, accentus, was founded in 1991, and her orchestra, Insula orchestra, in 2012. The choir is the resident ensemble of the Rouen Opera House, while the orchestra, which plays on period instruments, is based at La Seine Musicale cultural centre on the Seguin Island west of Paris. The soloists here are the Spanish soprano Núria Rial, and the Germans Anna Lucia Richter (mezzo-soprano), Werner Güra (tenor), and Gerrit Illenberger (baritone), all of whom are members of the international elite. Of the four, three were students at the Basel Academy of Music under the world-renowned vocal pedagogue Kurt Widmer – so a unified vocal approach is all but guaranteed on the part of the quartet of soloists.