No 212 Closing Concert

»The greatest musical work of art of all times and peoples« – it is with this superlative that the musicologist Hans-Georg Nägeli described Johann Sebastian Bach’s B Minor Mass in 1818. The Thomaskantor composed this huge work, consisting of 27 independent movements, in Leipzig over several periods, by taking numerous movements from earlier cantatas. He completed the score less than a year before his death. The question of whether he was honouring a commission or completed the mass for himself remains unanswered. – The Leipzig Bachfest traditionally places the B Minor Mass on the programme of the closing concert. This year, it features the host Thomanerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, conducted by Thomaskantor Andreas Reize.