Bach’s B Minor Mass

»You’ll hardly believe it today, but when we played the Mass in B Minor at the ›Prague Spring International Music Festival‹ in 2005, it was the first performance of the work with historic instruments in Prague. When the question arose of who should conduct, I was brave enough to step up.« Václav Luks, speaking here in a conversation with the early music magazine »Concerto«, is truly a pioneer of historical performance practice in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. In 1991, the Czech musician founded his Baroque ensemble Collegium 1704, with which he gave guest performances at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 2002 and 2004. One year later there followed that memorable premiere of Bach’s Mass in B Minor on historical instruments in Prague, the subsequent founding of the choir Collegium Vocale 1704, and the expansion of Collegium 1704 into a Baroque orchestra – which can now also be seen performing in the Elbphilharmonie.