For those unaware, San Francisco-based early music ensemble Cantata Collective continues its major series of J S Bach’s choral works with the Mass in B Minor, a towering testament of sacred music and the composer’s crowning achievement of his final years.

With celebrated conductor Nicholas McGegan, four of today’s most distinguished early music vocal soloists and a refined chamber choir, this live recording exudes a spontaneity that reveals the depth and passion of Bach’s glorious affirmation of faith.

Side 1:
1. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232: I. Missa (Kyrie & Gloria): 1. Kyrie eleison

Disc 2:
2. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232: II. Symbolum Nicenum (Credo); III. Sanctus; IV. Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei et Dona nobis pacem

The first disc - Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232: I. Missa (Kyrie & Gloria): 1. Kyrie eleison - is simply a most sumptuously impassioned, and wholly organic recording, and quite possibly one of the most seamless expressions of this art form that I have heard in the past decade.

It opens on the stoically sculptured Kyrie eleison and the flourishing Christie eleison and then brings us the more embodied Kyrie eleison II, the vibrant Gloria in excelsis Deo, the harmonious Et in terra pax, the delicately-hued Laudamus te, and then we get the forthright Gratias agimus tibi, a delicate, wood wind-imbued Kyrie eleison, the harmonious Qui tollis peccata mundi, the piece rounding out on the quietly playful Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, the empowered Quoniam tu solus sanctus, and finally the rapturous Cum Sancto Spiritu.

The second disc - Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232: II. Symbolum Nicenum (Credo); III. Sanctus; IV. Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei et Dona nobis pacem - and free flows with such a sheer magnificence that it is hard to not be transfixed by its free flowing structures.

This opens on Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232: II. Symbolum Nicenum (Credo), opening up to us first a free flowing Credo in unum Deum and the layered Patrem omnipotentem, and then brings us the sedate swirls and twirls found within Et in unum Dominum, the veritably ethereal Et incarnatus est, the hauntingly-hued Crucifixus, the enthusiastic Et resurrexit, the set culminating with a sombre Et in Spiritum Sanctum, an enthralling Confiteor, and a bold Et expecto.

Then we get a fearless five minutes spent within Bach, J S: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 - III. Sanctus: XXII. Sanctus - Pleni sunt coeli, before the final piece, Bach, J S: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 - Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei et Dona nobis pacem opens on the joyous Osanna, the resoundingly beautiful Benedictus, the strength of belief that resounds within Osanna, the piece, and the collection therein, closing on the plaintively emotive Agnus Dei and the wistful, yet hopeful Dona nobis pacem.

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