Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Details

St John's Smith Square
Smith Square
City of Westminster
London
SW1P 3HA
England

Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach – Mass in B minor, BWV 232

Performers

Christopher Monks – Conductor
Elin Manahan Thomas – soprano

Armonico Consort

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The King's Singers: The Two Mountains

Bach: St Matthew Passion

The Civil Service Choir & Consort

Tenebrae: Miserere, mei Deus

The Choir of Royal Holloway: Crucifixus

Tenebrae: Drop, drop, slow tears

Bach: St John Passion

Musica Secreta: From Darkness into Light

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Programme Note

It could be argued that J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor should have been titled ‘Bach’s Greatest Hits’, for that is what Bach himself aimed to achieve with this masterpiece. Composed over the final 25 years of his life and completed just one year before he died, the Mass is scattered with music and references that Bach considered to be his best work, and movements which he had allowed to develop over time and had returned to ‘perfect’ at a later date. Never performed complete in his lifetime, the work is in effect Bach’s own self-obituary, how he wanted to be remembered by the world.

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