We’re very pleased to be able to share that we are going to perform an abridged version of J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on 16 December at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. Bach’s Weinachts-Oratorium is a perennial favourite for the festive season and we’re delighted to be renewing our collaboration with the north London choir Eclectic Voices under the direction of Scott Stroman (with whom we performed Bach’s Ascension Oratorio earlier in the year).

It is part of the ethos of Scott Stroman’s various projects that they should be available and accessible for everyone to come and experience. Consequently, in a bold experiment the reflective arias will be performed in the language for which they were composed – German – but the narrative recitatives, telling the nativity story inbetween, will be performed in English.

Jenni Harper (soprano), Clara Kanter (alto), Robin Bailey (tenor) and Cheyney Kent (bass) are the soloists for this special event. Tickets are available from the church and we advise early booking to secure a seat (please go here for the Facebook event).

The year has gone very quickly and we already find ourselves at the final Bach Vespers of 2017. On 26 November we will be performing cantata BWV 60, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, a highly characterful cantata with the figures of Hope, Fear… and the redemptive figure of Christ popping up towards the end to intone the text from Revelation, ‘Blessed are the dead who have died in the Lord’.

BWV 60 is a cantata freighted with importance in more ways than one. The closing chorale – the unusual, whole-tone melody Es ist genug – has assumed greater import through its quotation by Alban Berg in that composer’s violin concerto of 1935. The concerto, dedicated ‘To the memory of an angel’ in reference to the death at 18 years of age of Alma Mahler’s daughter Manon, quotes the chorale in the woodwind in the crystalline denouement of the work, assimilated by the violin before the piece draws to its conclusion.

In addition to the cantata, we will also perform the motet O Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht BWV 118, thought of as a funeral motet. At this Bach Vespers we in the Collective and the congregation of St Anne’s will remember Trevor Broomhall who, as lector, read the Epistle and Gospel at Bach Vespers until his death earlier in the summer.

For this special Bach Vespers, we are very pleased to welcome back mezzo-soprano Judy Brown and, for the first time, the tenor Joseph Doody.

For the 500th anniversary of the foundation of the Reformation, the City Bach Collective perform JS Bach’s cantata ‘Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott’, BWV 80 in a special service of Bach Vespers. We will also perform the Motet Lobet den Herrn BWV 230 & the Sinfonia from cantata BWV 42 as well as other baroque music from Bach’s time.

There is more information regarding the 500th anniversary of the Reformation via reformation500.uk – you can also come and see a comprehensive display of information about Martin Luther and the Reformation at the church of St. Mary-at-Hill, where St Anne’s Lutheran Church holds its services.

St Anne’s Lutheran Vespers begin at 6.30pm and last just over an hour. They are free to attend (though you may contribute to a collection during the service). Tea and coffee are available afterwards.

The City Bach Collective greatly appreciate the support and enthusiasm of not only St. Anne’s Church, but also Music-at-Hill and Gibson Dunn in making such special music events available for everyone. If you want to know more about these and other City Bach Collective events as they come up, then you can sign up to our newsletter here.

The Bach Vespers series in association with St. Anne’s Lutheran Church & Music at Hill will start again on 24 September. We will be performing cantata BWV 138, Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz?, alongside now familiar German baroque music from the Lutheran ecclesiastical tradition.

The cantata demands that the audience consider the world around them and, to illustrate, refers to ravens. This is an ideal opportunity for us to rope in our near neighbours, the famous resident ravens of the Tower of London (at the other end of Eastcheap). We had a word with one of the Wardens there who offered us a photograph showing one of the birds looking up across the front of the Tower itself. For more pictures and other fun insights, do visit his Twitter feed.

Bach Vespers aims to reunite sacred German baroque music with the context for which it was written. You can find out more about this unique series via the St. Anne’s webpage here. It’s a particularly interesting time to come along and experience these events (for free) as the Church prepares to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the founding movement of the Lutheran and subsequently Protestant Church.

We are very pleased that St. Anne’s Lutheran Church & the music society Music-at-Hill have teamed up to engage us for the final Bach Vespers before the summer break. It’s an exciting one for us all to be part of, as it comprises part of the 22nd St. Anne’s International Bach Festival, run under the umbrella of Music-at-Hill.

Bach’s cantata BWV 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, is a wonderful curio. Cited as the first sacred cantata that Bach ever wrote, it is thought to date from 1707, towards the end of his tenure as organist of the New Church in Arnstadt. It has little dedicated solo writing for voice, and modest orchestration – it is like an extended, accompanied motet. We’re looking forward to performing it in the service of Bach Vespers on 23 July at 6.30pm at St. Mary-at-Hill Church in the City of London.