Holiday Concert: Bach’s B minor Mass

ARTEK’s festive holiday concert has become a New York City tradition. This season, Gwendolyn Toth conducts Bach’s monumental B minor Mass with singers and orchestra. One of Bach’s best-loved masterpieces, the B minor Mass was never performed complete in Bach’s lifetime. But in our time, the Mass depicts man’s essential humanity in the face of both grief and joy, expressed through Bach’s divinely inspired counterpoint. Magnificent choruses, achingly beautiful solos and duos, virtuoso instrumental writing with those transcendent trumpets! The B minor Mass is a wonderful way to start the New Year.

Gwendolyn Toth conducts; soloists include Clara Rottsolk, soprano; Christina Kay, soprano; Sarah Frei, soprano; Kim Leeds, mezzo-soprano; Matthew Newhouse, tenor; Drew Minter, baritone; Steven Hrycelak, bass. Cynthia Freivogel is concertmaster of the orchestra.