I first listened to J. S. Bach’s Mass in B-Minor about a year ago. I was reading John Eliot Gardiner’s book Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven at the time, and there was an entire chapter on the B-Minor Mass. I thought I’d better listen to Bach’s mass before I read about it. I listened to a recording of the B-Minor Mass conducted by Philippe Herrweghe on a CD player in my kitchen. I focused the aspects of the piece Gardiner discussed in his book, such as the abrupt and unusual way Bach opens the mass with the Kyrie chorus. I also thought about the history surrounding the Mass, like how Bach wrote the first part as a job application.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1w3EhXqwo
I enjoyed the B-Minor Mass quite a bit and I listened to it almost daily as background music while I did the dishes or studied. I even voted for the B-Minor Mass as Bach’s greatest work in a Twitter Bach-off competition. (To my disappointment, St. Matthew’s Passion won the Bach-off.)
By this point, I’d listened to the B-Minor Mass enough to practically have it memorized. I bought a ticket to see the B-Minor Mass live at Trinity Church conducted by Julian Wachner and performed by The Choir of Trinity Church, and the Trinity Baroque Soloists. Since I knew the B-Minor Mass so well, I expected the performance to be a pleasant and familiar experience. I was not prepared for the shock I felt when the first notes of the Kyrie hit me. The Mass was entirely different when performed live. While the recorded B-Minor Mass was a nice backdrop to dish washing, the power of the live version captivated me and brought me to tears.
If I were to describe the B-Minor Mass in terms of color, I would say the recorded version is a dull purple, and the live version is a rich and vibrant purple.
That’s the end of this post, but:
