Mass in B Minor

JS Bach

The greatest setting of the Roman Catholic Mass – by a pious Lutheran. A project begun in 1733 as part of a job application but not completed until the end of his life. A display of contrapuntal choral mastery, and virtuosic solo writing which would grace any opera house. A score for whose later movements the composer drew heavily on pieces he had previously written.

Such are the extraordinary origins of Bach’s mighty Mass in B minor, a work very familiar to Canticum and the early music ensemble Counterpoint, who will perform it in the splendid surroundings of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, the church which John Betjeman called “the cathedral of the Arts & Crafts Movement".