Performer: Jared Holt

Astonishingly vivid performances from an ensemble cast made it one of the most outstanding of their recent productions, an auspicious sign as de Mallet Burgess takes over the General Directorship of the company.

Sometimes in a performance there is a moment when everything just comes together; when every element on stage is operating at such a high level that the performance transcends these elements and causes one to become so immersed in the proceedings that you forget you’re at a performance at all.

The Mass in B minor was completed in 1749, the year before Bach’s death. Much of the work consists of music Bach composed much earlier in his life (the Kyrie and Gloria from one of the Lutheran Masses). The sections he added latter were among the last things he wrote before he died.