Weimar's Cantatas ~ Bach
24 May 2025/ France / Poitiers
For almost a decade in Weimar, Bach experimented with the genre of the cantata, renewing himself in astonishing ways. This programme offers 3 perfect examples.
When Bach moved to Leipzig, with the task of composing a cantata for every Sunday, he created a fairly stable musical form, through which he nevertheless managed to renew himself in astonishing ways. The cantatas he composed over the next 10 years in Weimar showed much more experimentation and diversity, both in structure and in the modest but ever-changing number of players. No two cantatas were alike. This was a happy period in his life, as is perfectly illustrated by the luminous soprano aria that opens cantata BWV 132, announcing the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Far more intimate is Trifft auf die Glaubensbahn BWV 152, unique for its delicate instrumentation (viola d'amore, recorder, oboe, viola da gamba), and culminating in a tender dialogue between the Soul and Jesus. More ambitious proportions characterise the cantata BWV 182, welcoming the ‘King of Heaven’, our Saviour.
This programme is the result of a desire on the part of Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie to explore Bach's cantatas, taking into account musicological elements such as the absence of a choir. These are all elements that renew our listening for an experience that goes beyond music and reaches spirituality. The ensemble offers 3 programmes a year, with 3 cantatas and organ works.
‘Convinced that each of these pages is a musical miracle and that it deserves to be heard by everyone, understood, tasted and retained, I have conceived the somewhat crazy project of travelling through and exploring all of these works; I am driven by the feeling that this is a pilgrimage that I must accomplish, without which my musical and spiritual life would be very incomplete...’. - Alexis Kossenko
When Bach moved to Leipzig, with the task of composing a cantata for every Sunday, he created a fairly stable musical form, through which he nevertheless managed to renew himself in astonishing ways. The cantatas he composed over the next 10 years in Weimar showed much more experimentation and diversity, both in structure and in the modest but ever-changing number of players. No two cantatas were alike. This was a happy period in his life, as is perfectly illustrated by the luminous soprano aria that opens cantata BWV 132, announcing the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Far more intimate is Trifft auf die Glaubensbahn BWV 152, unique for its delicate instrumentation (viola d'amore, recorder, oboe, viola da gamba), and culminating in a tender dialogue between the Soul and Jesus. More ambitious proportions characterise the cantata BWV 182, welcoming the ‘King of Heaven’, our Saviour.
This programme is the result of a desire on the part of Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie to explore Bach's cantatas, taking into account musicological elements such as the absence of a choir. These are all elements that renew our listening for an experience that goes beyond music and reaches spirituality. The ensemble offers 3 programmes a year, with 3 cantatas and organ works.
‘Convinced that each of these pages is a musical miracle and that it deserves to be heard by everyone, understood, tasted and retained, I have conceived the somewhat crazy project of travelling through and exploring all of these works; I am driven by the feeling that this is a pilgrimage that I must accomplish, without which my musical and spiritual life would be very incomplete...’. - Alexis Kossenko
