Bach’s Mass in B minor – Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhausorchester, Dresdner Kammerchor

Just a few weeks before his 90th birthday, Herbert Blomstedt gifted himself a special birthday present: conducting Bach’s Mass in B Minor, in the Leipzig Thomaskirche – the composer’s former workplace. According to Blomstedt, Bach’s last complete vocal work is the climax of his creativity and is one of the most important 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.”
For Peter Wollny, director of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Bach’s magnum opus is “without doubt the most intellectually and musically varied and challenging of Bach’s compositions” and “one of the greatest achievements of Western culture.” The concert closed the Bachfest Leipzig 2017 and was performed by the Gewandhausorchester, the Dresdner Kammerchor, and the soloists Christina Landshamer, Elisabeth Kulman, Wolfram Lattke and Luca Pisaroni.

“The performance of Bach’s “Opus Summum,” under the aegis of Herbert Blomstedt, became a two-hour long, highly meditative prayer that was performed in almost supernatural calm and clarity.”  Deutschlandfunk

“The crowning conclusion of the 2017 Bach Festival”  Leipziger Volkszeitung