Grasping and Understanding the B-minor Mass:
In the closing concert of the 2019 Bachfest in Leipzig‘s St Thomas church, Opera Fuoco gave a performance of Bach’s B-minor mass that most closely followed the orchestral/choral placement used by the composer during his time as cantor there.
This webinar will present a live discussion about the documentary with some of the participants in the project. Clemens Haudum is the musical director of the Tölzer Knabenchor, the boys’ choir featured in the performance. Countertenor Andreas Scholl, one of the world’s most renowned specialists of Baroque music, was a soloist in the concert. Wide-ranging conductor David Stern is the founder and director of Opera Fuoco, the Paris-based international opera company and young artist program dedicated to lyric repertoire from the mid- 18th century to the present. Christoph Wolff, Professor Emeritus of Musicology at Harvard University, is the foremost authority on the life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and was the director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig from 2001-2014. The discussion will be moderated by Susan Boynton, Professor of Musicology at Columbia University.
A documentary film about the performance, viewable below, or on Youtube, includes interviews by leading Bach scholars and performers that raise essential questions about the importance and understanding of text and explore thoughts about the historical vs contemporary use of a boys choir and the rigors and rewards of such an interpretation.
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