# Your favorite Mass in B-Minor recording



## DiesIraeCX

Well, TC, I must admit that I still don't own a single recording of Bach.

Help me change that by recommending me your favorite recording of the _Mass in B Minor_! I am heavily leaning in favor of HIP recordings, but I'm open to all suggestions!

I'm thinking of the Gardiner recording, but my mind can be changed.


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## StlukesguildOhio

Considering your preference for HIP, I'd go with Gardiner...

... or Herreweghe...










... or Suzuki...










After getting one of these HIP recordings you may want to sample something quite different. For an "old school" recording, you can't beat Klemperer's:


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## DiesIraeCX

Those look like great suggestions. Klemperer just may be my go-to alternative, as he is for Beethoven's _Missa Solemnis_, it doesn't hurt that it includes Gedda, one of my favorites.


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## Manxfeeder

Personally, I like Gardiner. A little detail to illustrate why is in the Christie Eleison section of the Kyrie, the women sound like they're flirting. After all, they're engaged to Christ and he's obviously crazy about his bride, so why wouldn't they be?


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## Bulldog

I favor the Leonhardt - great pacing, fantastic soprano in Isabelle Poulenard and wonderful choral singing. The two I haven't heard are Herreweghe/PHI and Jacobs/HM.

Correction: The Jacobs I was referring to on Harmonia Mundi is his St. Matthew Passion which I haven't heard. I have the Jacobs Mass in B minor on Berlin Classics and it's very good.


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## Guest

Well, SLG stole my thunder. For HIP, I adore the Suzuki recording. The Gardiner was my introduction to this heavenly work, but Suzuki is better.

And I also agree again with SLG - once you have heard the HIP recording (which is incredible), do yourself a favor and listen to the Klemperer recording.


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## KenOC

On a tangent, just heard Suzuki's 2013 Mozart Requiem today, a new performing version. Terrific!


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## DiesIraeCX

KenOC said:


> On a tangent, just heard Suzuki's 2013 Mozart Requiem today, a new performing version. Terrific!


That's completely welcome here! It's my favorite Mozart work.

I'm guessing you're referring to this one, I'll give it a listen soon!


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## KenOC

That's the one. Hope you enjoy it! So long as we're talking masses, I think Gardiner's new Missa Solemnis is the finest available.


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## Guest

I guess Gardiner is doing all new traversals of those works he has already recorded - he now has two recordings of both Brahms' German Requiem and now Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. I don't know how this new one compares to the previous recording, but that one was a great one. However, Klemperer, for me, still rules with the Missa Solemnis - and the German Requiem.


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## Xaltotun

The Klemperer sends shivers up my spine, just listened to it today. To me, it can't be beat.


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## Azol

How about Ton Koopman recording on Erato? One of my favorites!


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## quack

Despite Bach's cantatas being some of my favourite works in classical music and his mass often put as the pinnacle of his career, I have never been as keen as I should be on the Mass in B minor. The recording that really opened my ears to the work was Joshua Rifkin's early HIP recording.









His One Voice Per Part (OVPP) and lack of choir isn't an approach agreed on by many but it seems to bring the work alive to me in a way other versions don't. They aim for a final definitive message to god approach much in the same way Handel's Messiah was performed and recorded often. That can make it a rather heavy and portentous work that seems to drag on. Rifkin manages to make it far more spiritedly beautiful, makes it far less stodgy and far more engaging. He uses countertenors which I don't especially like but here they seem to fit perfectly. Their voices soar sweetly over the minimal forces rather than squeaking over the choir and instruments that they sometimes have to in other performances and other works of that era.


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## Heliogabo

I recommend Celibidache's version as well. Plenty of details that I didn't heard in other great performances.


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## realdealblues

For Bach's Mass in B Minor my top picks would be:

Eugen Jochum/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (EMI)
Otto Klemperer/New Philharmonia Orchestra (EMI)
Karl Richter/Munich Bach Orchestra (Archiv)


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## hpowders

Yes. My favorite is the first one I ever bought, Karl Richter/Munich Bach Orchestra.

I have yet to hear a HIP that approaches it.


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