Yale-Juilliard Historic Concert: J.S. Bachs Mass in B Minor @ Sogakudo Concert Hall

Yale-Julliard Historic Concert: J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor

Classical Movements, Inc., one of the premiere concert touring companies, is pleased to announce that Yale Schola Cantorum will be uniting with Juilliard 415 to perform the monumental Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach in a historic concert that will be performed in Tokyo, Sendai, and Osaka.    

About Yale Schola Cantorum

Yale University’s highly acclaimed chamber choir, Yale Schola Cantorum, was founded in 2003 by Simon Carrington. The 24-voice chamber choir sings in concerts and choral services and is supported by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music with the School of Music. It is open by audition to all Yale students and specializes in music from before 1750 and the last hundred years. Since 2009 Schola Cantorum has been under the direction of conductor Masaaki Suzuki. In addition to performing regularly in New Haven and New York, the choir records and tours nationally and internationally. The ensemble has recorded several of JS Bach’s choral masterpieces. Guest conductors have included Krzysztof Penderecki and Sir Neville Marriner.

About Juilliard415

Since its founding in 2009, Juilliard415, the School’s principal period-instrument ensemble, has received critical praise for its performances of both rare and canonical works of the 17th and 18th centuries. The ensemble has performed under the direction of such distinguished musicians as William Christie, Ton Koopman, Harry Bicket, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Hogwood, Jordi Savall, and Monica Huggett at venues in New York, including Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and on national and international tours. All students in Juilliard415 receive full-tuition scholarships and follow a rigorous curriculum that fosters an informed, vital understanding of the many issues unique to period instrument performance with the level of technical excellence and musical integrity for which Juilliard is renowned.

About the Conductor

 Masaaki Suzuki is the celebrated conductor of the Yale-Juilliard Historic Concert. Maestro Suzuki has established himself as one of the world’s leading authorities on J.S. Bach. He has an outstanding reputation for expressive refinement and truth of his performances. The Times (London) has written: “it would take an iron bar not to be moved by his crispness, sobriety and spiritual vigour”. Recently, Suzuki and his ensemble won the German Record Critics’ Award, Diapason d’Or de l’Année and BBC Music Magazine Award for their recording of Bach motets.

About J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor 

J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, which was assembled and revised in the final years of the composer’s life, is one of the towering achievements in Western classical music. Among Bach’s most monumental and beloved works, the Mass explores the furthest reaches of musical possibility, and is extraordinary testament to Bach’s life and work.

It is still not known exactly why the Mass was written: it was not performed during Bach’s lifetime, and indeed not in its entirety until the mid-19th century. Bach adapted and assembled the Mass from music that he had written over the course of his long career, but seemingly entirely of his own volition: the Mass is not the result of a commission request as there was no occasion that called for it; Bach didn’t even have a plan to perform it. Instead, it seems likely that he produced the Mass simply to satisfy his own desire for large-scale musical perfection, to leave a masterpiece for posterity that demonstrated all the abilities of the greatest musical mind the world has ever known. It is a display of sheer technical mastery, flawless in its conception and perfect in its execution.

@ Sogakudo Concert Hall at Tokyo University of Arts

8-4-3 Uenokoen, Taito, Tokyo

http://www.geidai.ac.jp/english/facilities/index.html#03

Tickets available at:

• Votre Ticket Centre - on sale at 03-5355-1280 (weekday 10:00-18:00) or online at http://ticket.votre.co.jp
• Geidai Art Plaza (only at the Store)
• Bach Collegium Japan on sale at 03-3226-5333 (weekday, 10:00-18:00) or email info@bach.co.jp
• Eplus on sale 10th April at http://eplus.jp/
• Ticket PIA on sale 17th April 0570-02-9999(ＰCode:198-922) or at http://t.pia.jp/
• Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Ticket Service on sale 21st April at 03-5685-0650 or http://www.t-bunka.jp/