JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Messe in h-Moll Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe

Towards the highest summits
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. No other Mass, no other Requiem was ever again to reach such sublime summits. Instead of suffering from its heterogeneous qualities, the Mass in B minor turns them into the ultimate and most perfect expression of an architectural form that was 'dreamed, imagined, and finally realised' (A. Basso).