Musica Antica - Hohe Messe

It is difficult for us to imagine, but it is true: Johann Sebastian Bach himself never heard his Hohe Messe in its entirety. Bach's incredible ability to create a larger whole drove him, at the end of his life, to compose this masterpiece from previously written parts. Bach wrote the various parts over a period of more than 40 years. And although he only brought them together in the last years of his life, they still sound like a logical story.

It seems as if Bach wanted to bring together all his musical skills in the field of vocal music in this mass, a musical testament that almost seems to tell the story of his musical life. This results in an astonishing variety of forms and instrumentation, in the richest orchestration you can expect from a Baroque orchestra. With strings and wind instruments, with brass and timpani, and not just a four-part but even a five- to six-part choir. Bach specialist Maria van Nieukerken conducts the Sweelinck Baroque Orchestra through Bach's tour de force.