Bach's B Minor Mass for solo voices

I recently had the experience of hearing a recording of Bach's B Minor Mass entirely for virtuoso solo voices. This was an eye-opener for there is good evidence that this was the type of ensemble Bach wrote for. It gives one pause for the general way the choral repertoire is often performed, by large pools of voices. This may be due to a shortage of good sight readers in modern groups. The notes for the recording, which I will have to track down, mention that Bach wrote the B minor Mass for a specific small ensemble of very skilled solo voices. The performance has a chamber orchestra and the quality of the voices is so good that you can hear the vocal parts pretty clearly. This is a treat as I have been staring at the score for years and actually heard some of the parts in this performance that I could never hear before.

This adds weight to the consideration of the original resources used by the composer which he must have given very careful attention to in his work, and a fact to be weighed in modern performance.