Koor & Orkest Bach Collegium Japan . Masaaki Suzuki

Having already been a guest artist with Collegium Vocale Gent, Masaaki Suzuki is now for the first time presenting his Bach Collegium Japan in deSingel, occupying the dreamed-of closing slot in this masterly cycle of concerts. In 1817, the Swiss critic and publisher Hans-Georg Nägeli proclaimed Bach's 'Mass in B Minor' "the greatest work of music of all time and of all peoples", a remarkable statement at a time when Bach was known at most for his keyboard fugues - Mendelssohn's revival of the 'St. Matthew Passion' was still thirteen years in the future. It was nevertheless not just Nägeli and Mendelssohn who suspected that Bach's religious music could well contain hidden treasure: Joseph Haydn, in his old age, moved mountains to obtain a hand-written copy of the 'Mass in B Minor' - certainly no coincidence. Beethoven, too, gave particular credence to Nägeli's claim, taking it as a challenge to surpass Bach's mass with his own 'Missa Solemnis'. Bach's 'Mass in B Minor' was not in fact completed in a single act of composition. The manuscript consists of four separate bundles, written between 1733 (the 'Kyrie' and the 'Gloria') and 1749 (the 'Credo'). The mass itself fulfils a dual role in Bach's oeuvre, rounding off his religious works and at the same time summarizing their essence.