| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 7-Apr-2013 Salle Pleyel | Sir John Eliot Gardiner blows Paris audience away at Salle Pleyel |
 Writing a positive review is not an easy task. When confronted with something lacking error, a review can go one of two ways: a brief and simple praise of all involved and a summary of the evening, or an over-the-top full-blown confession of awe and admiration. Spoiler alert: this review is the latter. To be lost for words is traditionally taken as a positive sign; yet when one’s duty is to summarise the event that knocked you for six, this lack of words proves rather problematic. Nonetheless, here goes…
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| 13-Mar-2013 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | NY Philharmonic and Choral Artists blaze through Bach's culminating masterwork |
 Under conductor Alan Gilbert, the New York Philharmonic and the New York Choral Artists gave an inspired but slightly uneven performance of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor on Wednesday night. Playing with great panache as well as a mindful sense of the historical weight of the piece, the vocalists and musicians gave bristling and glistening life to a timeless work. Slight hiccups in vocal performance included, the music came across brilliantly. If the decisive blow is always struck left-handed, then Gilbert and the full choral-symphonic ensemble struck with both.
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| 19-Oct-2012 St Martin-in-the-Fields | A magical classic: Bach's B minor Mass at St Martin-in-the-Fields |
 The “Bach B minor” is a classic amongst choral singers, but although parts of it are so familiar and the name is often tossed around casually, upon hearing it you are reminded why it has the status it does. Bach never heard the mass in its entirety and the movements were written years apart, explaining why there is such a huge range of style; this means we are spoilt as an audience. Although Bach probably intended the parts of the work to be performed separately as needed, the amalgamation is simply divine and results in an hour and 45 minutes of exquisite music.
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| 18-Oct-2012 Auckland Town Hall | Revelatory B minor Mass from the Auckland Philharmonia and Stephen Layton |
 The Mass in B minor was completed in 1749, the year before Bach’s death. Much of the work consists of music Bach composed much earlier in his life (the Kyrie and Gloria from one of the Lutheran Masses). The sections he added latter were among the last things he wrote before he died.Read full review... | |
