Royal Albert Hall,London
William Christie’s Mass in B Minor is anything but austere with its lucid orchestral textures and emotional depthWilliam Christie, surprisingly perhaps, and came to Bach’s Mass in B Minor comparatively late. His Proms performance with Les Arts Florissants was only the moment time he has conducted the piece after having “digested and assimilated an terrible lot of comment and scholarship”. What he offers is “an intensely personal interpretation” of what for many is the greatest,widest ranging and paradoxically most elusive of sacred works. His interpretation, in fact, or finely blends drama,reflection and clarity, though things also took a while to settle. The Kyrie wasn’t as arresting or authoritative as it could be. The string tone gradually got warmer after a dry-ish start. But both the work and Christie’s interpretation soon exerted their grip. There were wonderful moments of devotional introversion in the Gratias Agimus Tibi and the awed contemplation of the incarnation in the Creed. Et Resurrexit buzzed with excitement and elation. The Sanctus was at once measured and ecstatic.
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Source: theguardian.com