John Eliot Gardiner at 80: JS Bach Mass in B minor
Live at St Martin-in-the-Fields, John Eliot Gardiner celebrates his 80th birthday with a performance of Bach's B minor Mass with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner has spent a large part of his musical life immersed in Bach's liturgical music and is acknowledged as one of its foremost interpreters. So as part of his 80th birthday celebrations, it's no surprise that he has chosen to conduct his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in a performance of the Mass in B minor, widely regarded as the summit of Bach's religious music.
No one knows for sure why Bach, a lifelong Lutheran, chose to make a full Latin setting of the Catholic Mass. But written towards the end of his life, it seems to have been a way of summing up all he was musically and spiritually capable of 鈥� of leaving something for posterity 鈥� after a lifetime of professional underappreciation and what must have felt like ephemeral drudgery. For this major project, which he probably never heard performed, Bach reworked a lot of his older music, both sacred and profane. But the result, far from being an incoherent patchwork, has a compelling musical unity coupled to a profound spirituality: a European work of art at least the equal of anything from humankind anywhere at any time.
Broadcast live from St Martin-in-the-Fields and introduced by Martin Handley.
JS Bach: Mass in B minor
Hilary Cronin (soprano)
Sarah Denbee (mezzo-soprano)
Bethany Horak-Hallett (mezzo-soprano)
Reginald Mobley (countertenor)
Jonathan Hanley (tenor)
Nick Pritchard (tenor)
Alex Ashworth (bass-baritone)
Dingle Yandell (bass-baritone)
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)
Last on
Music Played
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Mass in B minor, BWV 232
Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner. -
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Gustav Holst
Venus, the Bringer of Peace (The Planets)
Orchestra: The National Youth Orchestra. Performer: Dominic Martens. Conductor: Edward Gardner.- Strauss / Holst: Orchestral Works.
- Chandos.
- 011.
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Gustav Holst
Mercury, the Winged Messenger (The Planets)
Orchestra: The National Youth Orchestra. Conductor: Edward Gardner.- Holst - The Planets / Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra.
- Chandos.
- 12.
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Gustav Holst
Jupiter (The Planets)
Orchestra: The National Youth Orchestra. Conductor: Edward Gardner.- Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Holst: The Planets Suite.
- Chandos.
- 013.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
The Art of Fugue - Contrapunctus VIII
Performer: Pierre鈥怢aurent Aimard.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.
Broadcast
- Mon 24 Apr 2023 19:30大象传媒 Radio 3