Kelli Van Meter, soprano

The Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach is often considered a cathedral in sound. Its grand, symmetrical structure combined with subtle theological symbolism and some of Bach’s most glorious music combine to lead the listener from mundane existence to lofty heights.

Kansas City will have a chance to experience this rarely performed work when the William Baker Festival Singers presents the Mass in B minor April 6 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

William Baker, founder and artistic director of the Festival Singers, is a Georgia native who is steeped in the music of Bach. When he was 16, he started singing in the Atlanta Symphony Chorus under the great Robert Shaw, a conductor noted for three outstanding recordings of the Mass in B minor.

“Shaw recorded it in the 1940s on 78s, which we have in the Sullivan Library here at the Choral Foundation,” Baker said. “He recorded it with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Chorus — which I wish I'd been on, but I wasn’t — and that's a very good recording. But his 1960 recording on RCA Victor with the Robert Shaw Chorale is one of the finest choral recordings that has ever been made. Honestly, Mr. Shaw's 1960 recording is my model for doing it and and how it is to be done.”

No matter what approach a conductor and choir takes, the Mass in B minor presents monumental challenges.

“It's difficult and punishing vocally in 25 different ways,” Baker said. “There is so much choral singing at extremes of range, extremes of melisma and speed, and as Shaw said one time, it keeps coming at you and coming at you and coming at you from different directions. The sheer stamina to rehearse it, the sheer stamina to perform it makes it understandably off-putting. Plus it's an expensive project, it takes a lot of rehearsals, it takes a lot of time with the orchestra, a lot of time with the soloist. It makes it a challenge to put it together.”

Bach himself never heard the work performed. He is considered the ultimate Lutheran composer, yet the Mass is a Catholic liturgical form. How did Bach even come to write a Mass that was never performed in his lifetime?

“That's one of the great mysteries,” Baker said. “We just don't know. In Leipzig during Bach's time, doing the Kyrie and the Gloria in a worship service in Latin was not unheard of and was not prescribed against by the fathers of the Lutheran Church. Bach wrote the Sanctus in the 1720s and did it for a Christmas Eve service, we know that, and we think that very well may have been the only part of the work he heard. Why he completed the Mass, we just don't know. The more that I study it, I have come to believe that Bach did intend for this to be a single work. I do not claim any authoritative status on the work at all. I'm a slave in chains to it.”

Whatever Bach’s motivation or intentions, all agree that the work is transcendent and filled with religious fervor.

“Bach being a very religious man, it's almost as if he created a final offering to lay before his God, knowing that it wouldn't be long before he himself would be standing before that altar,” Baker said. “That gives it even more spiritual power, don't you think?”

As in his other spiritually profound works, Bach utilizes every means at his disposal, from musical allusions to complex theological imagery to convey his deepest feelings.

“He uses an ancient technique that in many respects resembles Palestrina,” Bakes said. “When he sets ‘I believe in God, the Father Almighty,’ the first words of the Creed, he’s using an ancient form, stile antico, that gives the idea that these words have stood for hundreds of years. These words will stand till the end of time. The ancient form underscores the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”

Erin Lillie, mezzo-soprano

Emily Stott, alto

Ed Frazier Davis, baritone

In addition to the 40 members of the Festival Singers, Baker has lined up superb soloists to convey Bach’s vision.

“Three of the soloists I'm working with for the first time,” Baker said. “I know them by reputation and recording and they are brilliant. Zachary Devon was a soloist with our summer singers for Mendelssohn's Elijah and for Haydn's The Creation. This is his first appearance with the festival singers. Ed Frazier Davis, of course, has been on our staff now for nearly 10 years. He's the director of Vox Venti in Chicago, which is our primary ensemble in the Chicago area. He’s a brilliant composer and a very fine conductor and a very underrated soloist. He's also the son of the great conductor Sir Andrew Davis.”

The performance will take place in Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, an appropriate space for Bach’s music.

“It's just the right size, and it has just the right balance of clarity and resonance for this work,” Baker said. “And they have a nice portative organ. It’s  where we performed it in 2009, and I can't think of a better place in Kansas City to do it.”

As Baker mentioned, it’s expensive to perform the Mass in B minor. The same is true for all of the worthy activities of the Choral Foundation based in Fairway, Kansas. Whether it’s the Summer Singer programs, the Institute for Healthy Singing, the Jane Sullivan Choral Library or bringing music education and instruments to Kenya, it all takes money and the support of the community. Fortunately, now is an ideal time to give.

“Between March 15th and June 15th, an anonymous donor has pledged to match every gift to the Choral Foundation up to a total of $50,000,” Baker said. “So anyone that makes a gift to the Choral Foundation now, their money will be doubled by our anonymous donor. People can call call our office at 913-488-7524, or visit our website at choralfoundation.org, and we would love to talk to you.”

With your support, the Choral Foundation will continue its impressive cultural activities, like presenting rarely performed, large-scale works like Bach’s Mass in B minor.

“It's a Mona Lisa, it's a Sistine Chapel, it's one of the towering enterprises in the choral art,” Baker said. “As a very religious man, Bach believed that his scholarship and his innovation and his creativity came from God. When Bach was dying, one of his last words was, do not mourn for me, for I am going to where music is born.”

 2 p.m. April 6. Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, 415 W 13th St, Kansas City, MO 64105. $30 to $100. www.festivalsingers.org.