Bach Mass in B Minor - Dunedin Consort - The Times

Surely no other recording of Bach's B Minor Mass bounces along with such joy as this - the latest Baroque classic to be spruced up by John Butt's award-winning Dunedin forces, based in Edinburgh. Lots of clarity, too, partly thanks to the slimmed-down forces, featuring only ten voices (heard at their brightest in the polyphony of the Gloria). A few times the singing sounds threadbare, but no clouds cover the instrumental finesse in an interpretation that eschews weighty grandeur for light and smiling exultation.