Fans of Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki's Bach cantata recordings on BIS with his Bach Collegium Japan will be pleased to see that his engagement with Bach is continuing with other works. He makes a good choice to begin this new phase with the so-called Lutheran masses, which are comparatively neglected works. The term might sound like an oxymoron, but in fact in Bach's time German and Latin liturgies were both used, with the choice depending on the place (Leipzig favored Latin music) as well as on the level of pomp ...
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Fans of Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki's Bach cantata recordings on BIS with his Bach Collegium Japan will be pleased to see that his engagement with Bach is continuing with other works. He makes a good choice to begin this new phase with the so-called Lutheran masses, which are comparatively neglected works. The term might sound like an oxymoron, but in fact in Bach's time German and Latin liturgies were both used, with the choice depending on the place (Leipzig favored Latin music) as well as on the level of pomp desired. These pieces are sometimes given the title Missa Brevis, which in the Baroque era meant a mass comprising a Kyrie and Gloria only. They are thus about the length of a cantata, with mixed choruses and solos. Bach did indeed recycle cantata music for these pieces, but that is nothing against them: the same is true for some more famous Bach choral pieces, and he did more rewriting and adaptation for these than in other similar situations. Sample the Gloria for the Mass in G major,...
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