It was written over a period of seventeen years and was made to include compositions created over an even longer period. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor was never performed during his lifetime. It was played as a whole after more than a century. It turned out to be a musical paradise considered – along with Die Kunst der Fuge – one of the most brilliant achievements of the Leipzig cantor.

A masterpiece that crosses the boundaries of musical forms, religious denominations and historical eras, conducted by Lionel Meunier, will be presented by Vox Luminis and Freiburger Barockorchester. The history of the creation of this monumental piece starts in 1733. Its beginnings are connected with the death of August II the Strong – the King of Poland and, as Frederick August I, the Elector of Saxony. Johann Sebastian Bach, hoping to take up the position of composer at the Dresden court of the next of the Wettins – August III (Frederick August II), created an extensive mass in the form of a missa brevis consisting of the Kyrie and Gloria sections, which he next sent to Dresden. However, the missa brevis did not live up to the hopes placed in it. Although Bach eventually received the desired position, it did not happen until 1736. The master returned to working on his Mass in the 1740s.

One of the greatest mysteries in the history of music is the question of what motivated him at that time. He expanded the Mass so much that it became too extensive for liturgical use. According to the most convincing hypothesis, by writing this enormous composition, Bach wanted to save from oblivion his smaller works – cantatas and instrumental concertos, fragments of which he wove into it. The Sanctus, on the other hand, is a once independent work written in 1724. As a result, the Mass in B minor uniquely combines the most expressive features of Bach’s style and the Lutheran theology, so close to him, with the Catholic liturgy of the Counter-Reformation era. After the ecumenical rapprochement in the 20th century, these features gave the Mass in B minor a new, truly universal dimension.