Johann Sebastian Bach - Harnoncourt - Messe in H-moll / Mass in B-minor BWV 232 (1986)

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Johann Sebastian Bach - Harnoncourt - Messe in H-moll / Mass in B-minor BWV 232 (1986)

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Johann Sebastian Bach - Messe in H-moll / Mass in B-minor BWV 232
Concentus Musicus Wien / Arnold-Schönberg-Chor / Nikolaus Harnoncourt
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 450 MB | Artwork (no Booklet) | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Teldec "Das Alte Werk" # 8.35716 ZA | Country/Year: Germany 1986
Genre: Classical | Style: Sacred, Baroque, Mass

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Johann Sebastian Bach - Harnoncourt - Messe in H-moll / Mass in B-minor BWV 232 (1986)

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The Mass in B minor (BWV 232) by Johann Sebastian Bach is a musical setting of the complete Latin Mass. The work was one of Bach's last, not completed until 1749, the year before his death. Much of the Mass gave new form to some of the vocal music that Bach had composed throughout his career, dating back (in the case of the "Crucifixus") to 1714, almost always extensively revised. To complete the work, however, in the late 1740s Bach composed new sections of the Credo such as "Et incarnatus est". The completed Mass was his last major composition.

It was unusual for composers working in the Lutheran tradition to compose a Missa tota and Bach's motivations remain a matter of scholarly debate. The Mass was never performed in totality during Bach's lifetime; the first documented complete performance took place in 1859. Since the nineteenth century it has been widely hailed as one of the greatest compositions in history, and today it is frequently performed and recorded.

On February 1, 1733 Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, died. Five months of mourning followed, during which all public music-making was suspended. Bach used the opportunity to work on the composition of a Missa, a portion of the liturgy sung in Latin and common to both the Lutheran and Roman Catholic rites. His aim was to dedicate the work to the new sovereign Augustus III, a Catholic, with the hope of obtaining the title "Electoral Saxon Court Composer". Upon its completion, Bach visited Augustus III and presented him with a copy of the Missa, together with a petition to be given a court title, dated July 27, 1733; in the accompanying inscription on the wrapper of the mass he complains that he had "innocently suffered one injury or another" in Leipzig. The petition did not meet with immediate success, but Bach eventually got his title; he was made court composer to Augustus III in 1736.

In the last years of his life, Bach expanded the Missa into a complete setting of the Latin Ordinary. It is not known what prompted this creative effort. Wolfgang Osthoff and other scholars have suggested that Bach intended the completed Mass in B minor for performance at the dedication of the new Hofkirche in Dresden, which was begun in 1738 and was nearing completion by the late 1740s. However, the building was not completed until 1751, and Bach's death in July, 1750 prevented his Mass from being submitted for use at the dedication. Instead, Johann Adolph Hasse's Mass in D minor was performed, a work with many similarities to Bach's Mass (the Credo movements in both works feature chant over a walking bass line, for example). Other explanations are less event-specific, involving Bach's interest in "encyclopedic" projects (like the Art of Fugue) that display a wide range of styles, and Bach's desire to preserve some of his best vocal music in a format with wider potential future use than the church cantatas they originated in (see "Movements and their sources" below).

The Mass in B minor is widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements of classical music. Alberto Basso summarizes the work as follows: "The Mass in B minor is the consecration of a whole life: started in 1733 for 'diplomatic' reasons, it was finished in the very last years of Bach's life, when he had already gone blind. This monumental work is a synthesis of every stylistic and technical contribution the Cantor of Leipzig made to music. But it is also the most astounding spiritual encounter between the worlds of Catholic glorification and the Lutheran cult of the cross."

Scholars have suggested that the Mass in B minor belongs in the same category as the Art of Fugue, as a summation of Bach's deep lifelong involvement with musical tradition—in this case, with choral settings and theology. Bach scholar Christoph Wolff describes the work as representing "a summary of his writing for voice, not only in its variety of styles, compositional devices, and range of sonorities, but also in its high level of technical polish … Bach's mighty setting preserved the musical and artistic creed of its creator for posterity."

The Mass was described in the 19th century by the editor Hans Georg Nägeli as "The Announcement of the Greatest Musical Work of All Times and All People" ("Ankündigung des größten musikalischen Kunstwerkes aller Zeiten und Völker"). Even though it had never been performed, its importance was appreciated by some of Bach's greatest successors—by the beginning of the 19th century Forkel and Haydn possessed copies, and Beethoven made two attempts to acquire a score. wikipedia

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Johann Sebastian Bach - Harnoncourt - Messe in H-moll / Mass in B-minor BWV 232 (1986)

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