For Bach, the Mass in B minor marked the culmination and also the end point of his life’s work as a composer. This “great Catholic Mass”, the only mass he composed, and in which he set to music the complete Ordinary of the Latin Mass, was his last great vocal work. The Mass, completed in 1748/49, is a musical masterpiece in which the Baroque musical splendour is always to the fore, though reflective moments and intense, heartfelt chorales are also very important elements. The Latin Ordinarium constitutes the silk thread along which all these musical pearls are strung.

Even after almost three hundred years, the music of Bach’s Mass in B minor is still animated, fresh, and a true Baroque delight – whether heard live in concert or recorded. What makes this concert version of April 2016 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz so special that it should definitely be added to any CD collection? The fresh voices of the young but excellent vocal soloists: the regularly praised “astonishing three-dimensionality” and “crystalline clarity” of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks under the direction of Peter Dijkstra and of course of the renowned period instrument ensemble Concerto Köln; and last but not least, the exciting live atmosphere of a concert event that delighted the audiences, and even managed to coax the word “magical” from Munich’s music critics – rare praise, but in this case, richly deserved!

The audio recording of Bach's Mass in B Minor has now been reissued by BR-Klassik on two excellent CDs, together with an introduction to the work by Markus Vanhoefer (1 CD).