J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor (2018)

performed by André Morsch (bass), Katherine Watson (soprano), Reinoud Van Mechelen (tenor), Tim Mead (counter tenor), Les Arts Florissants (choir, chorus), Les Arts Florissants, William Christie (conductor)
composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

Buffalo-born conductor William Christie was one of the early leading lights of the entire historical-performance movement in France. He has been known mostly for performances of French Baroque opera and sacred music, which, as he suggests in a booklet note, makes this reading of Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, something of a personal project. It has that flavor: it's enthusiastic but a bit idiosyncratic and rough around the edges. Christie avoids the temptation to make the mass sound like a succession of French operatic ... Read More

Buffalo-born conductor William Christie was one of the early leading lights of the entire historical-performance movement in France. He has been known mostly for performances of French Baroque opera and sacred music, which, as he suggests in a booklet note, makes this reading of Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, something of a personal project. It has that flavor: it's enthusiastic but a bit idiosyncratic and rough around the edges. Christie avoids the temptation to make the mass sound like a succession of French operatic scenes. His orchestra and choir are of moderate (but not minimal) size, and he takes mostly brisk tempi and forges sharp accents and distinct lines in the polyphony. He asserts that "my goal in this recording is to show a human side of Bach's art," and indeed what you get is a vivid, direct response to the text, not smoothed out by anything like the drilled rehearsals of John Eliot Gardiner's Bach choirs. If those are a bit smooth for you, you may well go for the sound of Christie's... Read Less