One can raise various objections to this 2024 release by the
Cantata Collective and its director, early music veteran
Nicholas McGegan. The choir, with ten singers (bulked up a bit from the group's usual chamber configuration), sometimes gets to a high enough level of impact for the passages of deep emotion in the
Bach Mass in B minor, BWV 232 (the Resurrexit in the Credo) and sometimes doesn't (the opening Kyrie does not get things off to a strong start). The Osannas in the Benedictus are a bit on the jolly side, and there are intonational problems in various places, notably the all-important Incarnatus. For all this, it is a one-of-a-kind
B minor mass that reflects the
Cantata Collective's background in giving free
Bach cantata concerts over some years in the San Francisco Bay Area (the group is devoted exclusively to
Bach performance). These singers are powerful communicators, and
McGegan generally keeps them in balance with his orchestra of historically authentic instruments, including blaring natural trumpet. They are aided by soloists who are very fine across the board, and the entire thing, whatever its faults, has an X-factor coming from freshness and commitment. These forces have already recorded the
Bach St. John Passion, BWV 245, and one looks forward to other planned recordings of large
Bach works. The sound from Berkeley, California's First Congregational Church, is billed as excellent and lives up to the billing; it is both rich and transparent. ~ James Manheim
