Choir of Trinity College Cambridge & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment • Bach: Mass in B Minor (2CD)

For all the B minor Mass’s stylistic diversity, many Bach lovers would agree that it offers a spiritual experience as deep as that afforded by the St Matthew Passion. These two monumental (whatever the forces used) works, each of unsurpassed grandeur and profundity, are polar opposites. In the Passion the individual soul relives Christ’s sufferings, and in the process moves from repentance to salvation. In the Mass, transcending religious denomination, the entire church celebrates the glory of God and seeks redemption. Between them they constitute the ne plus ultra of sacred music. – Richard Wigmore, 2018