Album Description

It is with great delight that we announce the first release of two new recordings of J.S. Bach’s Lutheran Masses.

Bach was a Lutheran church musician devoted to the composition of sacred music in German. He wrote more than 200 cantatas for the liturgy, most of them in Leipzig. Despite their name, the four Lutheran Masses feature almost no Lutheran material. Sometimes called ‘Missa brevis’, musically they are almost entirely made up of movements borrowed from Bach’s Cantatas but, while they are often overshadowed by the more famous Mass in B minor, the beauty of these short Masses is that they represent Bach’s own choice of his finest Cantata movements.

Despite their exquisite beauty, featuring splendid choruses and deeply moving arias, there are relatively few recordings of the Lutheran Masses. On this new collection just eight singers from The Sixteen perform the Masses allowing the beauty of the virtuosic vocal lines to be heard with absolute clarity.

Artists

The Sixteen
Harry Christophers

Track Listing

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

Mass in G minor, BWV 235
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Gratias
4. Domine Fili
5. Qui tollis - Quoniam
6. Cum Sancto Spiritu

Cantata 102 - Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben! BWV 102 
7. Coro: Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben!  
8. Recitativo: Wo ist das Ebenbild, das Gott uns eingepräget
9. Aria: Weh der Seele, die den Schaden
10. Arioso: Verachtest du den Reichtum seiner Gnade
11. Aria: Erschrecke doch
12. Recitativo: Beim Warten ist Gefahr 
13. Choral: Heut lebst du, heut bekehre dich 

Mass in F major, BWV 233
14. Kyrie
15. Gloria
16. Domine Deus
17. Qui Tollis
18. Quoniam
19. Cum Sancto Spiritu

Total running time: 74.07