Some conductors have a special affinity with a particular piece of music and that’s the way it is when Jeffrey Thomas steps up to conduct J.S. Bach’s B-Minor Mass. He takes you through this piece as if it were an actual journey, a real mass, instead of a compositional tour-de-force that is far too complicated and long to present as music for a religious service. When American Bach Soloists do this piece, they’re at their best, like their conductor. You can miss it, but you’ll be kicking yourself in the morning.
Michael Zwiebach is the senior editor/content manager for SFCV. He assigns all articles and content, manages the writing staff, and does editing. A member of SFCV from the beginning, Michael holds a Ph.D. in music history from the University of California, Berkeley.