In 1996, Penderecki was commissioned by the choral conductor Helmuth Rilling to compose a mass, planned for performances at the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and the Oregon Bach Festival.

[1] Rilling conducted the first performance on 11 July 1998 in Eugene at the Oregon Bach Festival, with soloists Juliane Banse, Milagro Vargas, Marietta Simpson, Thomas Randle and Thomas Quasthoff, the Phoenix Boys Choir, and Oregon Bach Festival chorus and orchestra.

[1] The composer conducted the work first for the Ukrainian premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine at the Organ Music Concert Hall in Kyiv on 31 March 1999.

[5][7] It was coupled with his 1964 Cantata in honorem Almæ Matris Universitatis Iagellonicæ sescentos abhinc annos fundatæ.

[6] A recording was also made of a performance by the same forces who premiered the work: Helmuth Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra and Choir, with the soloists listed above.