Bach's Mass in B minor

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia, to a renowned family of musicians. He learned from his father to play the violin and the harpsichord, winning a scholarship in 1699 to study organ in Lüneburg. In 1703 he was rejected in a competition for organists because the protégé of the Prince of Saxe-Weissenfels was favored.  Hired as a court musician in Weimar, he dedicated his work to organ music, composing numerous fugues for Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, who was also a composer.  Upon the latter's death in 1714, Bach was arrested by his successor as a result of a discussion, and fled to Cöthen to the court of Prince Leopold, for whom he composed the Brandenburg Concertos. Appointed Kantor of the Thomasschule of Leipzig in 1722, he worked composing sacred music such as the St. Matthew Passion, and teaching music. He died on July 28, 1750, due to a stroke, leaving behind five harpsichords, three violins, two violas, two cellos, a lute and a spinet.

STEFANO MONTANARI

Graduated in violin and piano with honors, from 1995 to 2012 he was concertmaster and director of the Accademia Bizantina of Ravenna, an ensemble specializing in early music. Professor of baroque violin at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan and the "Dall'Abaco" Conservatory of Verona, Stefano Montanari, is also a regular guest conductor of the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, La Fenice in Venice, the Society of Lyon, Opera Atelier in Toronto and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.