We are already looking forward to the first Bach Vespers after Easter (well, J. S Bach did not write any cantatas for Lent, so we’re starved of these wonderful pieces until then).

Moreover, we are particularly looking forward to welcoming a delegation from the World Lutheran Federation to Bach Vespers. At this special event we are thrilled to finally get to perform J. S. Bach cantata BWV 42, Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats. The famous opening instrumental Sinfonia has long been a concert piece in our repertoire but we haven’t, in living memory, had the chance to perform the entire work (because we tend to perform the cantata for the given Sunday, in an ongoing effort to stick closely to the Lutheran liturgical year as the music is in support of St Anne’s Lutheran Church’s act of worship).

We really hope that you will be able to join us for this event on 28 April at 6.30pm which, as ever, is free to attend. We will also perform other works by Bach as well as by other noted composers in the Lutheran tradition, Heinrich Schütz, Dieterich Buxtehude and Martin Luther himself.

Since taking over the Bach Vespers series in 2015, we have kept in close contact with Peter Lea-Cox, who started the series in 1982. We’re pleased to read that Peter can’t help himself but to continue the tradition down in Dorset, where he has organised local musicians and friends to present Bach cantatas and other pertinent music into a Vespers format at a church near Charmouth. We wish them all the best for their first of this season on 2 February.

Happy New Year! We’re already planning cantatas for 2019. The first two Bach Vespers with St. Anne’s Lutheran Church will be on 27 January and 24 February. At the end of this month we will perform BWV 111, Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit and then in February we’re going to do BWV 181, Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister.

We hope that you can join us for these events which are held on the final Sunday of the month at 6.30pm – and, as ever, they are free to attend.

With last night’s performance of J. S. Bach cantata BWV 116, Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ, we sign off Bach Vespers with St. Anne’s Lutheran Church for 2018. It’s been a rich year of discovering lesser known sacred cantatas, a journey that we have shared with healthy congregational audiences of up to 100 people at a time throughout the year. We’re already looking forward to returning in 2019, including two very special services just after Easter. Our thanks to Music-at-Hill concert society, and particularly that of the Lutheran Church in Hannover & Gibson Dunn LLP for their generous support of the series. For more information about these and other City Bach Collective activities then do sign up to our newsletter via the simple form below. Until the next time, Happy Christmas!

The final St. Anne’s Lutheran Church Bach Vespers of 2018 will be on Sunday 25 November 2019. We will perform J. S. Bach cantata BWV 116, Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ, a piece which concerns the idea of  Tribulation, when the people are beset by siege or war.

This is a serendipitous work to be performing a fortnight after the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, the centenary of the conclusion of the first World War.

In addition, we will also perform other pieces by Bach as well as music by Johann Schein and Matthias Weckmann.