Bach’s B Minor Mass

11 July 2024

Bach’s B Minor Mass will be performed on Saturday 17 August in the stunning chapel of Keble College, Oxford. The concert concludes TRBC’s week-long Summer School and we are delighted to be performing in such a marvellous acoustic.

Bach composed the B Minor Mass in stages. The earliest sections date from 1733, when he submitted a setting of the Lutheran Mass (Kyrie and Gloria) as credentials for his application to be court composer at Dresden. In 1748–49, just before his death in 1750, he expanded this to a full Catholic Mass. He ‘recycled’ and enlarged a Sanctus from 1724 and added the colossal Credo, the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei. There is much conjecture on why he should have assembled, so late in life, a sacred work of such impracticality. It would be a huge undertaking to perform the work liturgically today; in 1749 it would probably have been impossible.

Our performance – also for practical reasons – omits the Credo and offers the original Lutheran Mass plus the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. Four prize-winning soloists join us: Harriet Burns (soprano), Tom Lilburn (countertenor), Sebastian Hill (tenor) and Ossian Huskinson (bass-baritone). During the week, our repetiteur Chris Finch will have played the complex score on the piano with just two hands. For the concert, 25 or so players from the St Cecilia Players will take over,  revealing all Bach’s orchestral colour.

Bach’s B Minor Mass draws to a close 10 years of TRBC Summer Schools directed by Brian Kay. It’s been a wonderful decade, including performances in Coventry Cathedral, Birmingham Town Hall, Bath Abbey, St Mary Warwick, All Saints Leamington Spa and now the historic surroundings of Keble College Chapel. We have explored a vast array of choral music by Duruflé, Rutter, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Handel, Poulenc,  Puccini, Bach, Haydn and Lauridsen and enjoyed the company of hundreds of fellow choral singers.

Please come and hear our final Summer School concert, which starts at 7 pm. Tickets are available from TicketsOxford at £15 (£10 concessions).