Bach's Mass in B minor is a world documentary heritage
The autograph of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz has been inscribed on the Unesco Memory of the World Register.
Tomorrow, the President of the German Unesco Commission, Verena Metze-Mangold, will present the General Director of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Barbara Schneider-Kempf, with the certificate designating Bach's Missa as Memory of the World / World Documentary Heritage.
The autograph is part of the largest Bach collection; around 80 percent of all Bach's surviving compositions are in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. The presentation of the certificate will now be combined with a performance of the work. Ton Koopman will conduct the RIAS Chamber Choir and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on October 26, 27 and 28.
A facsimile of the mass has been published by Bärenreiter. The facsimile in high-resolution four-color print documents and secures the current condition of the complete autograph. It is supplemented by older photographs of individual pages, which show the content of pages that are now difficult to read.
