For the Fourth Sunday in Advent

Wagner has received his fair share of attention this year, but even he, even Mozart, even Beethoven, must ultimately take second place to the greatest composer of all. This evening, I shall be hearing the B minor Mass from the Aurora Orchestra and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, at Kings Place. That should be my final concert of the year: not a bad way to bow out. And I realise it will be the first performance of Bach's great mass that I shall have heard since starting to write here. In the meantime, here is Bach's Cantata  for the final Sunday in Advent, Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV 132. Karl Richter conducts the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra, with soloists Edith Mathis, Anna Reynolds, Peter Schreier, and Theo Adam. Those really were the days...