Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Washington Bach Consort, Mary Ann Callahan :: The Bach Masses, Vol. 1

This is an extremely notable first American recording of these masses by J.S. Bach, performed by the critically acclaimed American early-music group, the Washington Bach Consort. The success of Bach's B-minor Mass has obscured a number of his shorter masterpieces of the same genre. Written in the 1730s (when Bach was in his 40s, these masses -- which consist only of a Kyrie and Gloria setting -- could be performed in both Catholic and Lutheran liturgies. Sometimes misleadingly called "The Lutheran Masses," Bach used them to gain recognition from the Catholic court of Dresden, which bestowed upon him the title "Electoral Saxon and Royal Polish Court Compositeur." Later, he was to take one of these masses and expand it into the full B-minor Mass so popular today. The booklet contains notes by Christoph Wolff, a leading Bach scholar, tracing the history of these less-familiar masses and placing them in the context of the B-minor Mass and other works by Bach.