Herreweghe: Bach – Mass In B Minor (2 CD, APE)

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Veronique Gens, Peter Kooy, Christoph Pregardien, Andreas Scholl
Orchestra: Collegium Vocale Orchestra
Conductor: Philippe Herreweghe
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 2
Format: APE (image+cue)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Size: 515 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

Mass in B minor, for 5 voices, 6-part chorus, violin, orchestra & continuo, BWV 232 (BC E1)
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performed by Collegium Vocale Orchestra
with Christoph Pregardien, Johannette Zomer, Andreas Scholl, Veronique Gens, Peter Kooy, Hanno Muller-Brachmann
Conducted by Philippe Herreweghe

Disc 1:
01. h-moll-Messe: Kyrie eleison
02. h-moll-Messe: Christe eleison
03. h-moll-Messe: Kyrie eleison
04. h-moll-Messe: Gloria in excelsis Deo
05. h-moll-Messe: Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis
06. h-moll-Messe: Laudamus te
07. h-moll-Messe: Gratias agimus tibi
08. h-moll-Messe: Domine Deus
09. h-moll-Messe: Qui tollis peccata mundi
10. h-moll-Messe: Qui sedes ad dexteram patris
11. h-moll-Messe: Quoniam tu solus sanctus
12. h-moll-Messe: Cum sancto spiritu

Disc 2:
01. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Credo in unum Deum
02. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Patrem omnipotentem
03. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Et in unum Dominum
04. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Et incarnatus est
05. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Crucifixus
06. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Et resurrexit
07. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Et in spiritum sanctum dominum
08. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Confiteor
09. h-moll-Messe: Symbolum nicenum – Et expecto
10. h-moll-Messe: Sanctus
11. h-moll-Messe: Osanna in excelsis
12. h-moll-Messe: Benedictus
13. h-moll-Messe: Osanna in excelsis
14. h-moll-Messe: Agnus Dei
15. h-moll-Messe: Dona nobis pacem

What you will hear at the gates of Heaven

Though I generally prefer OVPP (one voice per part) performances, Herreweghe’s rendition of the Sanctus transcends any other performance I have ever heard — and I have heard and own most of them.

I understand the one reviewer’s quibble. Herreweghe lacks the overarching dramatic momentum of a Gardiner. And, taking the performance as a whole, I too prefer Gardiner, Rifkin, Parrot and especially Junghanel.

But…

What Herreweghe brings to Bach’s work is a sublimity and tenderness uniquely his own, a feeling that suffuses the whole with a transcendent spiritual glow. Nowhere is this transcendence more awe inspiring than in his Sanctus.

Forget the desert island. When I die, this is the music, this Sanctus, that I am taking with me.