Bach, J S: Mass in F major, BWV233

“such life-enhancing music makes a welcome reissue.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 ****

“Schreier uses modern instruments, but with an awareness of performance practice which yields sparkling playing.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 ****

“How beautifully moulded … is the unassuming fugal opening of the F major Mass, followed by an exuberant and brilliantly executed Gloria … Bonney shows exemplary control in “Qui tollis”, as she does so affectingly in the gliding equivalent in the A major Mass.” Gramophone Magazine, February 1995

“The Schreier set can be warmly recommended … a fine, fresh account of the Magnificat. He has excellent soloists, notably Barbara Bonney and Olaf Bär, and the … digital sound is first class.” Penguin Guide

“These beautifully sculpted performances present a perspective on Bach which is committed to beauty of sound...but allied to a structural coherence which combines elegance and grip...this outstandingly engaging, visceral and characterful disc keeps some of the best till last: a rich but deeply sorrowful reading of the funeral motet, 'O Jesu Christ, mein Leben's Licht'” Gramophone Magazine, February 2011

“Koopman and splendid soloists in a first-rate start to an important series.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008

“Koopman achieves a truly astonishing clarity and focus from 16 voices… He's superbly served, too, by his instrumentalists, horns flying effortlessly through uplifting strands of figures in the thrilling opening to BWV233's Gloria… it's the now-familiar 'Koopman spirit', that irrepressible exuberance and imagination, which confirms his latest venture as my Magnificent benchmark.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 *****

“The absurd prejudice that long deprived us of adequate recordings of Bach's four Lutheran Masses (or short Masses, as they're also known because, in accordance with Lutheran usage, they set only the Kyrie and Gloria) seems finally to have died a death. The Masses' crime has been to be made up almost entirely of paraphrases of cantata movements from the 1720s, yet Bach is Bach, whatever the circumstances, and this is wonderful music which, like the B minor Mass, offers sober old-style polyphonic choral movements of impressive cumulative power alongside choruses of almost physical excitement and clamour and some first-rate arias with instrumental obbligato.
As with volume 1, a one-to-a-part approach is taken, with the four vocal soloists also forming the choir and the Purcell Quartet being augmented by whatever extra instruments are needed. The result doesn't sound at all underpowered, and gains considerably over Herreweghe's typically well-turned but more traditional choral approach in vividness of texture and harmony, crispness of attack and a madrigalian litheness of expressive response.
The recording allows just the right amount of bloom without becoming washy. There are times when the two higher voices sound further forward than the others, and Michael Chance occasionally disappears a bit towards the bottom of his range, but in general this release brings nothing but pleasure both in the music and in the stylish and lively performances.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010