Christmas Concert — Bach's Mass in B minor

J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor constitutes one of the most colossal works of his musical output. Its structural scope places us before a musical monument resulting from a lifetime of labour. Bach, a composer expert in reusing musical materials, completed this Mass in the final years of his life, between 1749 and 1750. To this end, he used previously composed musical materials, some of which had been performed earlier and date back to the 20s and 30s, and others composed from scratch. The work presents a confluence of styles and compositional techniques that Bach adopted throughout his life, making it a unique piece, a synthesis of styles and contrasts, almost like a musical biography. The piece invites us into the Bachian world through the richness of choral textures, the latent stylistic variety, and an unequivocal formal mastery and command of writing for choir and orchestra. The Mass in B minor probably had its first complete performance in 1859, in Leipzig, more than a century after the composer's death. Pre-concert talk by Rodrigo Teodoro de Paula at 4:30 pm. El Corte Inglés supports the CCB Classical Music Mediation Programme.