Giulini conducts the B minor Mass

Giulini was a man of deep faith and he considered Bach’s Mass in B minor as one the supreme pinnacles of devotional music.  He resisted programming it for years, saying that he was too young to express its great spiritual depths.

Peter Diamand had founded the Holland Festival in 1947 and he was one of the first to recognise Giulini’s genius.  The Italian conductor appeared at the Festival every year from 1952, establishing an extremely strong artistic friendship between the two men.  Diamand moved to the Edinburgh International Festival in 1966 and he was determined to feature Bach as one of its themed composers in his first Festival in 1967.  And a performance of the Mass in B minor was an obvious priority.  Given Giulini’s nervousness about tackling this daunting masterpiece, Diamand proceeded with caution.  To give Giulini reassurance he offered the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, a body Giulini had worked with frequently in Holland, and the New Philharmonia Chorus, which was considered the leading choir of the day under its legendary leader Wilhelm Pitz.  Of the soloists, Janet Baker was already established as a major vocal and spiritual performer, alongside established stars Irmgard Stadler and Richard Lewis.

Three major recordings exist of Giulini conducting the B minor Mass.  In 1972 he performed it with the New Philharmonia Orchestra in the vast, reverberant acoustics of St Paul’s Cathedral and in 1994 he recorded a studio performance with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.  Both these recordings are much heavier and slower than his Edinburgh version, and although more ostensibly devotional arguably less affecting.  The 1967 recording is a hybrid, combining a relatively lean orchestral sound with a full chorus.  Klemperer’s commercial recording of the work, with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, also appeared in the same year.  Giulini’s interpretation belongs to this same, highly devotional school, but in its use of lighter orchestral forces points the way forward to the much leaner style that would come with the early music movement.

Giulini’s spirituality suffuses the whole performance.  Janet Baker shared his deep faith and her rendition of the arias Qui sedes and Agnus dei burn with conviction (she was also the soloist in Klemperer’s studio recording of the same year and in Giulini’s later performance in St Paul’s Cathedral).  The British tenor Richard Lewis illuminates the Benedictus with his bright, clear tone and impeccable diction.  The soprano part is taken by the distinguished Austrian Irmgard Stadler, especially known for her interpretation of J S Bach.  The Lebanese bass Robert El Hage was discovered by Giulini and became a regular soloist at the Edinburgh International Festival following the success of this performance of the B minor Mass.

This recording is an invaluable record, emanating from the old, traditional style of music-making but edging towards a new, lighter way, combining the eternal architecture of Bach with the warmth and pulse of one of Italy’s greatest conductors.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Mass in B minor

Track 1: Announcement

Missa (Kyrie and Gloria)

Track 2: Kyrie eleison (Chorus)

Track 3: Christe eleison (Duet: Soprano, Alto)

Track 4: Kyrie eleison (Chorus)

Track 5: Gloria in excelsis Deo (Chorus), Et in terra pax (Chorus) and Laudamus te (Aria: Soprano)

Track 6: Gratias agimus tibi (Chorus)

Track 7: Domine Deus (Duet: Soprano, Tenor)

Track 8: Qui tollis peccata mundi (Chorus)

Track 9: Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris (Aria: Alto)

Track 10: Quoniam tu solus sanctus (Aria: Bass) and Cum Sancto Spirito (Chorus)

Track 11: Closing announcement Part 1.

Track 12: Opening announcement Part 2

Symbolum Nicenum (Credo)

Track 13: Credo in unum Deum (Chorus) and Patrem omnipotentem (Chorus)

Track 14: Et in unum Dominum (Duet: Soprano, Alto)

Track 15: Et incarnatus est (Chorus) and Crucifixus (Chorus)

Track 16: Et resurrexit (Chorus)

Track 17: Et in Spiritum Sanctum (Aria: Bass)

Track 18: Confiteor (Chorus) and Et expecto resurrectionem (Chorus)

Sanctus

Track 19: Sanctus (Chorus) and Pleni sunt coeli (Chorus)

Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei et Dona nobis pacem

Track 20: Osanna in excelsis (Chorus)

Track 21: Benedictus (Aria: Tenor) and Osanna in excelsis (Chorus)

Track 22: Agnus Dei (Aria: Alto)

Track 23: Dona nobis pacem (Chorus)

Track 24: Closing announcement

The recording was made from a relay of a concert that took place at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh on August 27 1967.

Recording comes from the Richard Lewis Collection at Music Preserved.

Our recordings are only as good as the tapes made by the collectors,  This only has a brief period of turbulence during the introduction to the Christe eleison (Track 3).