This is my favorite recording of the Mass in B Minor. Working on a small scale (one singer per part, as opposed to the more usual larger chorus), Parrott creates a performance that is warm, intimate, and joyous. Kirkby's and Van Evera's sopranos blend beautifully. The alto parts are taken by a boy whose voice is passionate and not all that smooth, which only adds to the overall "human" feeling of the performance. There's a lot of disagreement about whether Bach should be performed "big" or "small." (This is probably very much a matter of personal taste. Parrott's small-scale version of the St. John Passion, for instance, seems thin to me -- I like Suzuki's bigger recording with the Bach Collegium Japan.) But with the B-minor Mass, in this particular version, small works. The richness of the music is still there, but with the grandeur and remoteness of the larger chorus pared away, you're somehow aware that real people (albeit gorgeous-voiced ones) are singing it. Other recordings make me admire the Mass; this is the one that makes me love it.
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