Don’t miss us on 27 October as we perform Bach’s magnificent and ever popular Reformation cantata, BWV 80, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. This Bach Vespers service takes place at 6.30pm at the church of St Mary at Hill in the City of London, hosted by St Anne’s Lutheran Church. This cantata features a team of three oboes of different sizes and bassoon, playing with and in contrast to the strings to create fabulous textural colours. There will also be lots of other music too, performed on period instruments.
Everyone is welcome (you don’t have to be religious), and attendance is free. Do come along and bring your friends. We look forward to seeing you there to share Bach’s wonderful music!
The following Bach Vespers will be on 24 November (BWV 61).
Come and join us on 29 September for our first Bach Vespers after the summer break. It takes place at 6.30pm at the church of St Mary-at-Hill in the City of London. We’ll be performing Bach’s rarely heard cantata BWV 8, Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben. This features a beautiful and virtuosic flute part, played by flautist extraordinaire, Lisete da Silva (pictured). We’re delighted to have Lisete with us again. There will also be music by Schütz and J. C. Bach, performed by our splendid team of singers and period instrumentalists.
Our next Bach Vespers is on 28 July at 6.30pm at the church of St Mary at Hill in the City of London. This date is the anniversary of Bach’s death in 1750. We perform Bach’s powerful cantata BWV 168, Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort. Composed in 1725, this cantata, based on the concept of being accountable for one’s actions, contains a number of surprises. The operatic drama of the opening movement depicts the ‘Word of Thunder’ on Judgement Day, which rends the rocks and makes one’s blood run cold. Money metaphors are used throughout the work to describe spiritual debt, with rather worldly references to payment, business calculations, capital investment and interest in extraordinary detail – not something we would necessarily expect to find in a sacred work! All is explained by the fact that Salomo Franck, Bach’s librettist in this cantata, was director of the Weimar mint. After a splendid showpiece duet for soprano and alto over a repeated bass, the cantata ends with a serenely lyrical chorale. The service will also include music from the German Baroque for voices and period instruments.
Do join us for Bach Vespers on 30 June at 6.30pm in the church of St Mary-at-Hill in the City of London. We’ll be performing Bach’s powerful chorale cantata BWV 93, Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten. This work of great beauty and variety, composed three hundred years ago in 1724, highlights the concept of trust, which offers stability, freedom from worry, and sunshine after rain. The chorale theme on which it is based, which appears in every movement, must have been one of Bach’s favourites, because it is the one he uses more than any other in his collection of over 200 cantatas. This cantata includes a duet for soprano and alto, which Bach later reused as the third of his famous organ Schübler Chorales. We’ll also perform music by other German baroque composers, with period instruments.