Bach Mass in B minor

Plymouth Philharmonic Choir

Founded in 1970, the 160 members of the choir perform a variety of music in the city of Plymouth and elsewhere in the country and abroad. We have won widespread acclaim which often include internationally respected soloists.
Our summer concert is Bach's Mass in B minor, one of the Baroque period's most celebrated choral masterpieces. Bach composed it around 1748–49, a year before his death. Despite its sheer scale and grandeur, the piece remained unnamed by the composer and existed only as a collection of manuscripts.
Listening to the entire work, it is easy to form the impression that this is the culmination of a great composer’s life work. However much of the best-loved Mass in B minor is constructed from recycled pieces Bach had composed earlier.
The Kyrie and Gloria were 1733 works for the Elector of Saxony at Dresden, and the Sanctus dates back to 1724. The Qui Tollis dates back even earlier, and was most probably based on a cantata from 1714. But all this is given a new lease of life when the Credo and Et Incarnatus Est movements are added.
From the opening bars of the Kyrie, the work's magnificence is evident. Beginning with a mighty five-part setting of the words, followed by a grand and imposing fugue, the work is as diverse as it is long. Paired with a violin, the soprano is gifted a beautiful solo in the Laudamus Te in an outpouring of musical religious fervour.
Bach died before he could hear the Mass performed in its entirety; in fact, it was not until 1859, more than a century after Bach died, that the entire work was performed at a single sitting.