Mendelssohn, Felix: Magnificat / Bach, J.S.: Magnificat, Bwv

A very interesting combination of Bach's Magnificat and a little-known setting by Mendelssohn - a disc well worth repeated listening. The Magnificat belongs to the core liturgy of the Christian churches. In the ancient church of the West it became part of the Vespers. Martin Luther did not see any reason to get rid of it after his Reformation. This explains that the Magnificat was still part of the Vespers in Lutheran Germany in Bach's time. As even the use of Latin wasn't completely abandoned and was especially used on high feasts Bach wrote his Magnificat on the traditional Latin text rather than in the vernacular. Two versions of this Magnificat have been preserved. The first is in E flat (BWV 243a) and was composed to be sung on Christmas Day of 1723. To that end it contained four interpolations of Christmas hymns in German. The version most performed today, and also recorded here, is the result of a reworking which probably took place between 1732 and 1735. The interpolations we