Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Herbert Blomstedt

The closing concert of the Bachfest Leipzig 2017 with the Gewandhausorchester, the Dresdner Kammerchor and an excellent quartet of soloists.

“I would give everything to meet Bach. Maybe that will be possible someday; we both believe in the resurrection but it might be a while until then,” Herbert Blomstedt explains regarding his special relationship to the great Thomaskantor. Just a few weeks before his 90th birthday, the Swedish conductor will, so to speak, be giving himself a special birthday present: He is conducting Bach’s “Opus ultimum”, the B Minor Mass, in the Leipzig Thomaskirche, the composer’s former workplace. For Blomstedt, Bach’s last complete vocal work and climax of his creativity is one of the central works in his life: “It is like a reflection of doubt. It is enormously powerful music in the same way that a wedge is enormously powerful.”

Johann Sebastian Bach
Mass in B minor, BWV 232

Herbert Blomstedt
Dresdner Kammerchor
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

Christina Landshamer, soprano
Elisabeth Kulman, alto
Wolfram Lattke, tenor
Luca Pisaroni, bass

June 18th, 2017 at 6 p.m.
St. Thomas Church Leipzig

A production of Accentus Music in co-production with NHK.

English title Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B Minor
Recording location St. Thomas Church Leipzig
Production Company Accentus Music
Co-Production Company NHK