Ulster Orchestra presents Music for Good Friday on the 10 April 2020 at the Ulster Hall with talented Conductor Patrick Hahn.
Elements of Bach’s B minor Mass first made an appearance in 1733, as part of what might be considered his ‘musical CV’, compiled for his application for the post of Court Composer to Friedrich August III in Dresden.
He did not complete the work until 1749, the year before his death and it was not performed in its entirety until Felix Mendelssohn rekindled interest in Bach’s music by performing the St Matthew Passion in 1829, after which the B minor Mass was rediscovered. The Mass was described in the 19th century by the editor Hans Georg Nägeli as ‘The Announcement of the Greatest Musical Work of All Times and All People’ and it is, quite simply, one of the greatest choral works of all time.
The music is gloriously rich and varied, a kaleidoscopic work embracing the full gamut of Bach’s styles, yet brought together with coherence as a sublime whole.
Bach’s final statement as a composer of sacred choral music was that the B minor Mass was an ‘insignificant example of my musical skill’. On the contrary, it is the composer’s masterpiece. Join conductor Patrick Hahn, soloists including the wonderful Ailish Tynan, the Ulster Orchestra and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir for this majestic Good Friday celebration!
- Patrick Hahn Conductor
- Ailish Tynan Soprano
- Jenny Daviet Soprano
- Margot Oitzinger Mezzo-Soprano
- Samuel Boden Tenor
- Ben McAteer Baritone
- Belfast Philharmonic Choir
