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Nowadays, Bach's Mass in B minor
is obviously one of the greatest masterpiece
of the whole music history.
It is recognized as such now, since more or less 150 years,
and played everywhere around the world.
And today, history makes us think that the Mass in B minor
maybe was for Bach a kind of testament,
a posthumous work, written at the end of his life,
that he would have handed down to posterity.
But one often forgets that the Mass in B minor
was an important work for Bach, throughout his life
and above all at two times of his life.
In fact, there are two different works in the Mass in B minor.
The first part, a missa - which is the purpose of this recording -
but this is also a work on his own,
and it really mattered for Bach.
It was for him a kind of hope
to see his own future taking place elsewhere.
Indeed, in 1723, Bach took a new post:
Kapellmeister in Leipzig.
He stayed most of his life in this town:
between 1723 and 1750, until his death.
In 1733, ten years after he arrived in Leipzig,
this was for him a disturbed time. It was a bit difficult for him:
we know that he suffered from a lack of acknowledgment,
that he had some disagreements with the authorities who hired him.
Because at this time, the kapellmeister was hired
by the Town Hall. And we know that Bach's relationship with them
were difficult, that he complained of many things: of his musicians' ability,
of all the heavy duties he had to do in addition to the music he wrote.
All these things decided Bach to send a missa
- because at this time, for many different reasons, Luther allowed
only to say the Kyrie, the Gloria, and from time to time the Sanctus.
So, a missa is a Mass with only a Kyrie and a Gloria.
Bach sent a missa which had huge proportions, which was absolutely
gigantic at the time.
almost an hour of music, and that for a Kyrie and a Gloria only.
So he sent that for the sake of the Prince Elector of Saxony,
who was living in Dresde, because he expected in return
an honorary position.
It is a title that doesn't give a post and a real work,
but it is a significant recognition.
And we guess that maybe, at the time, with all the trouble
he had in Leipzig, he imagined being able to change of life,
and maybe to leave Leipzig for a better situation elsewhere.
That is the real story of the Mass in B minor, of this famous masterpiece.
The missa is the sending of the first part of what we call today
the Mass in B minor.
So, why did we decide to make the recording of the missa only,
and not the whole mass?
There are, I think, two answers. First, maybe for an affective reason.
In fact, Pygmalion's story began with the recording of the "missa brevis".
And that led me to study this
famous missa, which will become later the Mass in B minor,
and which is maybe the fifth missa brevis.
There is a second reason: a new version was published in 2010
by specialists of the baroque area music.
The showed the details
the subtle differences that do exist between
this missa and the Mass in B minor,
that Bach will recompose at the end
of his life.
So, if one works on that new edition,
one can find many answers to the questions that are concerning
the interpretation of such a masterpiece.
It was, I think, a kind of paperchase
and that helped us deliver
the first part of what would become
15 years later, one of the greatest
sacred music masterpiece.