St Cuthbert’s is a large and impressive church. The alabaster wall frieze in the apse depicting Leonardo’s Last Supper was a fitting back drop for Neil Mantle to conduct J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor, one of most respected settings of the mass. For the Edinburgh Bach Choir this was the first of four performances this coming year to celebrate their centenary.
The choir of over seventy was on a raised platform in front of the orchestra of twenty six players, whilst Morley Whitehead in the organ loft on the south side looked down on everybody. Neil Mantle is a comfortable conductor to watch. From the side I could detect well timed smiles of encouragement to the four soloists, all of whom brought happy faces, confident singing and clear diction.
The mass was sung in Latin and for many in such a respected choir it was clear from their polished performance that this was not the first time they had sung it. It lasted a full two hours but with an interval after the Kyrie and Gloria. There was a great deal of passion on many faces by the time they reached the Sanctus and Benedictus.
It was a sophisticated audience who knew what they had come to hear. It was clear that they enjoyed it. How many were used to hearing the mass sung in church was not possible to tell. After all, we were in a Presbyterian church.
It took the invention of the printing press for the Papal Bull of 1570, Quo Primum, to set down for the first time the only approved liturgical text for the mass. This incidentally was the same year in which Pius V declared Elizabeth I of England a heretic after she had imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots.
Almost two hundred years later and shortly before he died, Johann Sebastian Bach assembled settings for parts of the mass he had composed over the years, bringing them together for the complete mass we heard on a lovely summer’s evening at St Cuthbert’s. The Edinburgh Bach Choir with their soloists gave us a treat.
Event: Saturday 22 May 2010, 7.30 pm