However, it is a work that more than one specialist has called into question for not having been conceived as such, being the result of the recycling of previously composed works, some of which were modified.

In Bach’s time this was common practice among composers, who were forced to do piecework for the church, although in this case the circumstances didn’t force him to compose the B-minor Mass. Rather, it was conceived as his own model of a polyphonic Mass for posterity.

Perhaps Bach would have liked to leave a model for performing the work, his own version. But if had the chance to travel in time and choose one of the many versions of the work that have been recorded over the last half century, Christophers’ would probably become one of his favourites: at least from a present-day viewpoint, it is magnificent for its pinpoint accuracy, leading directly to the aesthetic enjoyment of art.
MARICARMEN GÓMEZ

Mass in B Minor BWV 232
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Harry Christophers
The Sixteen , The Symhony of Harmony and Invention
Catherine Dubosc, Catherine Denley, John Mark Ainsley, Michael George
Coro COR 16044
2006 - 106:29 min.