Minkowski follows the Joshua Rifkin/Andrew Parrott line of performing Bach’s “great Catholic Mass” with a single voice to each part, 10 in all, for the choruses, and sharing out the solos democratically. Their evidence — one part per voice survives in the performing material for the Kyrie and Gloria sections that Bach submitted as a job application to the Elector of Saxony — is far from conclusive, but Minkowski makes a persuasive case for the “B minor madrigal” (John Eliot Gardiner’s put-down), with soloists of the calibre of Lucy Crowe, Nathalie Stutzmann and newcomers Julia Lezhneva and Christian Immler among his superb ensemble. Minkowski’s Bach is less mannered than his Handel, but there is drama and brilliance in the singing and playing he encourages from his period-style forces. Highly collectable. HC

Naïve V5145

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