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Bach: Epiphany Mass /Gabrieli Consort & Players · McCreesh

by: James Johnstone, James O'Donnell

Release Date November 23, 1998
McCreesh has repeated the successes of reviving the music and spirit of the Italian and German Renaissance with this double-disc set of a potential mass format for Epiphany. He revives one of Bach's smaller mass settings, and also gives us the gorgeous Cantata BWV65, among others. The playing, particularly from the horns, who use small, high-pitched horns for BWV65, is outstanding. Organ interludes and bells provide the atmosphere, though one wishes that he could have repeated the massed choirs from his Praetorius Christmas Mass, which provided such a strong finish on that disc. In the approach to Christmas, I encourage all Bach lovers to give this serious thought, to add a Baroque feel to their Christmas music this year.