Album Description

It is with great delight that we announce the second 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 major, BWV 235
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Gratias
4. Domine Deus
5. Quoniam
6. Cum Sancto Spiritu

Cantata 79 - Gott der Herr ist Sonn' und Schild BWV 79
7. Gott der Herr ist Sonn' und Schild
8. Gott ist unsre Sonn und Schild
9. Nun danket alle Gott
10. Gottlob!
11. Gott, ach Gott
12. Erhalt uns in der Wahrheit

Mass in A major, BWV 234
13. Kyrie
14. Gloria
15. Domine Deus
16. Qui tollis peccata
17. Quoniam
18. Cum Sancto Spiritu

Total running time: 73.52