VISION.BACH – REJOICE, BE GLAD!

Performers

Catalina Bertucci, soprano; Benno Schachtner, alto; Raphael Höhn, tenor; Tobias Berndt, bass; Gaechinger Cantorey; Hans-Christoph Rademann, conductor

Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach

Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248

Part I ‘Rejoice, be glad’

‘Sweet comfort, my Jesus is coming’ BWV 151

‘Let our mouths be full of laughter’ BWV 110

Christmas Oratorio BWV 248

Part III ‘Herrscher des Himmels’

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A jubilant and contemplative Christmas

In this Advent concert, we travel back to Leipzig in December 1725, during Bach’s third year as Thomaskantor. For the Christmas season, he composed cantatas with texts by the former Darmstadt court poet Georg Christian Lehms. ‘Unser Mund sei voll Lachens’ (Let Our Mouths Be Full of Laughter) celebrates the birth of Jesus with jubilation and splendour, whilst ‘Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt’ (Sweet Comfort, My Jesus Is Coming) welcomes the Child with gentle sounds and contemplative joy – particularly in an impressive soprano aria with solo flute. Bach creates nuanced and richly coloured moods for the Christmas festival, which we also find in his later Christmas Oratorio. With its festive first movement, ‘Jauchzet, frohlocket’, and the adoration of the joyful shepherds in the third movement, the Gaechinger Cantorey rounds off a concert full of heavenly sounds.