Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)

 

Apocryphal Masses & Magnificat

 

Missa BWV Anh. 25 in C major

Missa BWV Anh. 26 in C minor

Magnificat BWV Anh. 21 in A minor

 

Dorothee Mields

Henning Voss

Henning Kaiser

Ralf Grobe

Alsfeld Vocal Ensemble

I Febiamonici Baroque Orchestra/ Wolfgang HelbichMields

 

Although Johann Sebastian Bach received a good musical education, he taught himself composition as a boy, largely by copying out manuscripts belonging to his brother and others.  During his lifetime he continued to copy and collect other composers’ manuscripts for his own performance use, often without naming the author or indicating the source, and thus it is that a great number of the works found scribed in his hand were for many years attributed to him.

 

Contemporary scholars have since established authorship by other composers and these three liturgical works are no exception. The Magnificat was identified in 1982 by Andreas Glockner as a composition by Melchior Hoffmann (ca. 1679-1715), while the Mass in C minor is now thought to have been written by Francesco Durante (1684-1755), although substantially changed by Bach in his copied manuscript.

 

Although these may not be “authentic” Bach works, they provide a vital historical perspective on performance conditions of the early 18th century and indeed on Bach’s performance repertoire, as well as giving us a revealing clue to the sources for Bach’s compositional inspiration. And as compositions in their own right, they are undoubtedly stunning.

 

CPO 9998342