Guest
Philippe Herreweghe, one of today's most profound and erudite Bach interpreters, presents his new vision of a musical work for which nobody can say the ultimate word. Johann Sebastian Bach “composed” his Mass in B Minor in his last years, although most of it was much older, some of it written as early as 1724. Bach never witnessed a performance of the piece in its entirety, but it is doubtful if it was even intended for use in a service. It was simply too long for either Lutheran Leipzig or Dresden’s Catholic court. But the question of why it was composed is not important, given its reputation as “one of the greatest and most universal artworks in music history”. Watch the entire film on
