Collegium Vocale

Name: Collegium Vocale — Listening session: Hohe Messe (Bach)
Start: 2026-06-19T21:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-06-19T22:15:00+02:00
Location: Club Wintercircus

Listening session: Hohe Messe (Bach)

VIERNULVIER & Collegium Vocale

Fri 19.06

19:00 - 20:15

Club Wintercircus, Gent

binnenkort te koop

Fri 19.06

21:00 - 22:15

Club Wintercircus, Gent

binnenkort te koop

Experience Bach’s Mass in B minor like never before.

A unique listening session at Club Wintercircus, in collaboration with Collegium Vocale Gent and Evil Penguin.

Steven Maes, a specialist in immersive sound production and an internationally renowned figure in the world of classical music, has remixed the Hohe Messe using the original multitrack recordings, created especially for Club Wintercircus. The recording was made with immersive sound in mind from the very outset, and finds its ultimate destination here.

Don’t expect an orchestra in the middle of the hall, but an incomparable sense of spatial sound to swim through. An emotion you can never experience in a traditional concert hall. Here, centuries-old musical tradition meets contemporary technology: Collegium Vocale Gent enters into dialogue with Club Wintercircus’s internationally innovative immersive sound system. A new total experience of one of Bach’s most cherished compositions, performed by world-class local heroes.

On Collegium Vocale

Collegium Vocale Gent, founded in 1970 by Philippe Herreweghe, pioneered a revolutionary approach to Baroque music, centred on authenticity and textual depth. Within a few years, the ensemble had gained international renown and performed at the most prestigious venues and festivals, from Europe to the United States, and from Russia to Japan.

With unrivalled flexibility and a wide-ranging repertoire, Collegium Vocale Gent has developed into a leading ensemble on the international music scene, from solo Renaissance performances and the vocal works of Bach to large-scale symphonic oratorio productions.

With over 100 recordings, the discography bears witness to unbridled artistic freedom. Thanks to the support of the Flemish Community, the City of Ghent and the National Lottery, Collegium Vocale Gent remains a beacon of musical excellence and artistic innovation.

Bach’s complete Mass in B minor lasts 2 hours, but the immersive listening session will focus on Part 1 [Kyrie–Gloria] and lasts 60 minutes.

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A unique listening session at Club Wintercircus, in collaboration with Collegium Vocale Gent and Evil Penguin.

About the Mass in B minor

The Mass in B minor is widely regarded as the synthesis of Bach’s musical philosophy and an absolute highlight of Western classical music.

This masterpiece is the result of a long creative process. Johann Sebastian Bach ‘composed’ the Mass in B minor during the final years of his life, but most of the music was older. The Sanctus dates back to 1724, shortly after his appointment as cantor in Leipzig. Bach wrote the Kyrie and Gloria in 1733 as a Lutheran missa brevis for the court of Dresden, and in other sections he parodies his own cantatas. Only the Credo contains newly written music, intended to complete the mass as a missa tota. Fortunately, the reputation of the Mass in B minor has never suffered as a result of this history of its creation. It remains a benchmark for innovation.

Credits

In the Mass in B minor, Johann Sebastian Bach combines a five-part choir and five vocal soloists with a rich orchestra comprising strings, flutes, oboes, bassoon, horns, trumpets, timpani and basso continuo. This performance features the choir and orchestra of Collegium Vocale Gent, together with soloists Dorothee Mields (soprano I), Margot Oitzinger (soprano II), Alex Potter (alto), Guy Cutting (tenor) and Peter Kooij (bass). The overall direction is in the hands of conductor Philippe Herreweghe.