BACH: MASS IN B MINOR - BACH COLLEGIUM JAPAN, SUZUKI (2 HYBRID SACDS)

This is, as you would expect from Masaaki Suzuki, a B minor performance of extraordinary devotional weight, as its resonant surround sound irradiates the score in a patiently constructed explication. The reflective objectivity may seem a little too tantalising as the strangely uncharacterised 'Christe eleison' duet is dogged by the kind of over-regulated articulations in the strings from which Bach Collegium Japan can still suffer.Yet, after the somewhat lugubrious Kyrie, the Gloria fairly crackles and Suzuki's careful voicing between singers and instrumentalists generates extraordinary revelations (such as the consoling beauty of the 'Qui tollis' and, later, a remarkable reading of the Sanctus). The choral movements are admirably unhurried but purposeful.The solo movements are more variable: intonation takes time to settle early on, especially in the 'Laudamus te', and the 'Quoniam' is shorn of its eloquent grandeur in a prosaic romp, but 'Et in unum Dominum' reveals its expectant de