<\/p>
Hiring George Bernard Shaw as a music critic for The Star <\/i>in 1888, the newspaper\u2019s editor advised him to \u2018say what you like, but for God\u2019s sake don\u2019t tell us anything about Bach<\/a> in B minor\u2019. In truth, there\u2019s an awful lot to tell. The Bach Mass in B Minor, or \u2018The Great Catholic Mass\u2019, as CPE Bach<\/a> dubbed it (not quite accurately), raises countless questions yet ultimately silences them by dint of its all-conquering monumentality, the perfection of its myriad calculations, and the sheer humanity that informs every note.<\/strong><\/p> Haydn<\/a><\/strong> sourced a score from Hamburg; Beethoven<\/a> <\/strong>twice requested a copy for himself \u2013 the second time with thoughts towards his Missa solemnis<\/i>, whose scale and ambition owe something to Johann Sebastian\u2019s example \u2013 and Liszt<\/a><\/strong> was among those present at what was probably the first complete public performance, which took place in Leipzig in 1859, over a century after Bach\u2019s death.<\/p>