Karl Richter (1926-1981), founder of the Munich Bach Choir and Munich
Bach Orchestra, was a noted conductor, organist and harpsichordist. The
B minor Mass was one of his "warhorses", which he often performed on
concert tours. One of the most perceptive assessments of Richter's reading
of the B minor Mass appeared in a Munich daily following his last
performance of the work in November 1980: "One of the reasons why
Richter's account of the B minor Mass is so compelling is that, in
contrast to the historicizing Bach readings of today, it takes into
account both the present and the 250-year-old history of Bach
interpretation." The work was filmed in the splendid Baroque abbey church
of Diessen in Bavaria, which dates from Bach's time.