Bach: Cantatas BWV 4.2, 66.3, 37, 104 | Ton Koopman & Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir

The Bachfest Leipzig is marking a special anniversary in 2023: In the year 1723, so exactly 300 years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) took up his post as cantor of St. Thomas Church in the Saxon city. This involved composing, arranging, and conducting the music for worship in several churches on around 60 days of the year, as well as teaching pupils at the St. Thomas School. To accomplish this mammoth task, Bach composed new cantatas or parodied earlier works at a rate of almost one a week during his first year in office alone. The compositions, which later became known as Bach’s “first cantata cycle in Leipzig,” not only astonished his contemporaries but continue to delight people to this day. These compositions are extraordinary not only for their diversity but also for the way in which Bach reworked traditional musical forms and expanded the genre into new creative terrain – all in the space of one year between 1723 and 1724. Despite their technical challenges, these cantatas are among the Baroque composer’s most popular and frequently performed works.

Ton Koopman, Bach expert and international star of early music, has chosen four favorites from the last quarter of Bach’s first cantata cycle in Leipzig, which he is performing with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. In addition, there are two interviews in which Michael Maul, artistic director of the Bachfest Leipzig, asks Ton Koopman about the unique features of the four cantatas. Enjoy an informative as well as musically first-class cantata concert!

At a glance:
(00:00) Welcome of conductor Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir by Michael Maul, artistic director of the Bachfest Leipzig
(00:55) Interview with Ton Koopman on the Bach cantata “Christ lag in Todes Banden” (BWV 4.2)
(05:39) Interview on “Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen” (BWV 66.3)
(07:44) Christ lag in Todes Banden (Christ Lay in Death’s Bonds) (BWV 4.2)
(30:14) Erfeut euch, ihr Herzen (Rejoice, You Hearts) (BWV 66.3)
(1:01:11) Interview on the Bach cantata “Wer da gläubet und getauft wird” (BWV 37)
(1:06:10) Interview on the cantata “Du Hirte Israel, höre“ (BWV 104)
(1:14:01) Wer da gläubet und getauft wird (He Who Believes and Is Baptized) (BWV 37)
(1:31:24) Du Hirte Israel, höre (You Shepherd of Israel, Hear) (BWV 104)

Performers:
Elisabeth Breuer | SOPRANO
Maarten Engeltjes | ALTUS
Tilman Lichdi | TENOR
Klaus Mertens | BASS

AMSTERDAM BAROQUE ORCHESTRA & CHOIR
Susan Jonkers, Caroline Andrade, Ana-Marija Brkic, Maria Goetze, Elisabeth Blom | SOPRANO
Jonathan de Ceuster, Iris Bouman, Rob Cuppens, Mieke van Laren, Peter de Groot | ALTUS
Henk Gunneman, Martí Doñate, Chris Postuma, Guido Groenland, Emanuele Petracco | TENOR
Donald Bentvelsen, Hans Wijers, Vincent de Soomer, Michiel Meijer, Andreas Goetze | BASS

Catherine Manson, Marta Jiménez, Anna Ryu, Rie Kimura | VIOLIN I
John Wilson Meyer, VIOLIN I, VIOLA
David Rabinovich, Marc Cooper, Daphne Oltheten | VIOLIN II
Liesbeth Nijs | VIOLIN II, VIOLA
John Crockatt, Annemarie Kosten-Dür | VIOLA
Robert Smith, Konstanze Waidosch | CELLO
Michele Zeoli | DOUBLE BASS
Antoine Torunczyk, Clara Espinosa Encinas, Stephan Esmeijer | OBOE
Martin Bolterauer | CORNETT
Simen van Mechelen, Claire McIntyre, Joost Swinkels | TROMBONE
Nicolas Isabelle | TRUMPET
Wouter Verschuren | BASSOON
Kathryn Cok | ORGAN

Ton Koopman | CONDUCTING & ORGAN

Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and university lecturer Ton Koopman is one of the leading interpreters of early music with a particular accent on historically informed performance practice. Koopman founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979 and the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1992, which now performs together as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir. Among many other works, Koopman has recorded all of Bach's cantatas with this ensemble specializing in early music. Ton Koopman has been President of the Leipzig Bach Archive (Bach-Archiv Leipzig) since 2019.


© Deutsche Welle/Bachfest Leipzig, 2023

Thumbnail photo: © Foppe Schut

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