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.

At the end of next month we are going to perform a special work in J. S. Bach’s sacred cantata canon. For a long time it was thought that Bach wrote his ‘Refugee Cantata’ to commemorate the expulsion of Protestants from Salzburg in 1731. In fact Bach wrote the piece as part of the third (now largely lost) cycle of cantatas in Leipzig, five years earlier in 1726.

Nonetheless the themes of the cantata resonate today. Contemporary London is a goal and indeed home for many seeking refuge from conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet London has always been a forward-thinking, inclusive metropolitan destination for so many; one only has to go as far as Liverpool Street Station (right) to be reminded of the Kindertransport that provided an escape for some many fleeing Germany during the Second World War.

More than this, the fact that this, Bach’s cantata for the first Sunday after Trinity, Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, is associated with the persecution of Protestant Christians 200 years after a Papal bull excommunicated Martin Luther – and that Luther was himself cast out for precipitating the Reformation 500 years ago this year – gives us pause to consider the words of the opening chorus afresh:

Break your bread with the hungry
and those who are in misery take into your house!
If you see someone naked,
then clothe them and do not recoil in disgust.

The performance of J. S. Bach cantata BWV 39, the ‘Refugee Cantata’, will be as part of a service of Lutheran Vespers in association with St. Anne’s Lutheran Church, hosted at the church of St. Mary-at-Hill, near Monument, EC3R 8EE on 25 June 2017 at 6.30pm. This event is part of Refugee Week 19-25 June, more information via refugeeweek.org.uk

On 28 May we will perform J. S. Bach cantata BWV 44 Sie werden euch in den Bann tun as part of a service of Vespers with St. Anne’s Lutheran Church. The cantata is a vivid account of the persecution of Christians, including the evocative conjuring of the Antichrist as a monster, driving people on to repress Christian thought and worship.

The City of London boundary dragon is the fierce creature of the legend of St. George, patron saint of the country of which the City is the capital’s heart. Though fairly benign in the ubiquitous statues around the City, the dragon is a fitting symbol of the terror referred to in Bach’s cantata. Not only is the Christian soul banned in the words of the cantata but also attacked with sword and fire. Of course, the sword is something we incorporate in our own City Bach Collective logo to remind us that the City is the spiritual home of our Bach performance.

We’re very pleased that St. Anne’s Church has, on this occasion, invited the Rev Canon John O’Toole, Dean of St. George’s Southwark and National Ecumenical Officer and Secretary to the Department for Dialogue and Unity at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to come and preach prior to our cantata performance.

One of our long-standing relationships is with the musician Scott Stroman, a professor at the Jazz Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for over thirty years. Scott’s musical interest recognise few borders or and he is as intensely interested in JS Bach, Haydn and world music as he is in jazz. We have performed Bach’s St John Passion & B Minor Mass in the past with Scott and his amateur choir Eclectic Voices (you can watch a clip here).

Next week, we’re delighted to have been invited to join him and the choir & soloists of the American International Church (where he is the director of music) for a performance of the Ascension Oratorio BWV 11. The performance will form part of a church service and is free to attend.

from standard.co.uk

On Friday, the new director of the V&A, Tristram Hunt, wrote a featured comment for the London Evening Standard. It’s a useful article about the role of the V&A in curating and focusing on work of cultural interest, even if – in fact, especially if – the work doesn’t immediately appear to belong in the pantheon of the work that has stood in the V&A Museum for many years.

We wrote a short, supportive reply, focusing on the similar position in which the musicians who work in and around the City of London aim to maintain the cultural spirit of the traditions (be they social or aesthetic) in which they find themselves working.

We said:

It’s good to see that Mr Hunt sees the V&A as curating contemporary cultural items, trends and activity to reflect their heritage, and to offer inspiration for new direction.

We, as musicians working in the capital – especially at pageant-style events and church services – also provide this function. We perform music for specific functions on sites and at times for which it was designed. Those attending are taking part in an event which becomes part of the tradition.

This year is the 500th anniversary of the defining act of the Reformation. We are taking part in a number of events in which music written for the rise of Lutheranism or the concomitant Protestant churches is performed in actual church services in and around the City. The value is to remind ourselves what this must have felt like, both aesthetically and as an act of ministry.

As these events are often parts of acts of worship, then people often tell us how the musical performance is given special investment in the context of a service, how the music and the service is emancipated from history to become real. This is the ongoing work of London musicians that needs no special exhibition but lives on through the interest and involvement of both the regular and occasional visitor.