The Sound of Eternity - Bach Mass in B minor

Advance ticket sales for this concert are now closed. Tickets are still available and may be purchased at the door beginning at 6:30 pm prior to each performance.

Concert Conversation on Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 7-7:30pm at St. Olaf Catholic Church with Steve Staruch and Philip Brunelle

Maria Jette, soprano
Lisa Drew, alto
Brian Link, male alto
James Taylor, tenor
Aaron Larson, bass

VocalEssence Ensemble Singers
The Lyra Baroque Orchestra
Philip Brunelle, conductor

It took 25 years for German filmmaker Bastian Clevé to bring his life’s passion to the screen — a multimedia version of Bach’s Mass in B minor. The Sound of Eternity received its U.S. premiere at the Oregon Bach Festival in 2006. It is constructed of 27 short, dialogue-free films — based on the 27-part musical structure of the Mass — that lead us through alpine mountains and glaciers to peaceful valleys and pulsating metropolitan cities. The result is a powerful meditation on existence and being, the religious and the unexplainable and, ultimately, the circle of life.

Known as the “queen among masses,” Bach’s Mass in B minor is the composer’s opus ultimum and opus summum — the artistic record of a life’s work. Bach spent the last 15 years of his life at work on this significant piece, and it is the only complete mass that he ever composed, considered unique for the beauty of its musical expression. 

“For me personally, the Mass in B minor is an incredibly inspiring, reflective, euphoric and jubilant experience, almost as if, far from a single person’s destiny, a door opens into heaven. Out of this breathtaking experience the individual films have been created,” says Clevé. “The vision behind the film is to let the audience take inspiration through their ears and eyes, leave them contently carried away, feeling fulfilled and complete, and — one hopes — to keep this happiness for a little while.”