Cantatas for New Year
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordUnique among Bach’s church music, Cantata 152 for the 1st Sunday after Christmas in 1714 is scored for recorders, viola d’amore, viola da gamba, and oboe. These ‘old fashioned’ instruments, chosen for their tender qualities, create an exquisitely delicate intimacy.
Lutheran Vespers
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordA service of Lutheran Vespers featuring Bach’s Cantata 18 Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt. This dramatic cantata, written for Sexagesima Sunday, is richly scored for four violas and shows Bach’s vivid use of the latest operatic styles of the early 18th century.
Bach’s Leipzig Audition
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordIn December 1722 Bach was keen to leave Köthen and applied for the cantorate of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Anxious to woo the reluctant Leipzigers, who were not particularly disposed to appoint him, he diplomatically presented himself as a composer on quite modest lines. At his audition on 7th February 1723 he performed Cantatas 22 and 23 which, despite slim forces of oboe and strings, contain some of the most affecting and imaginative music in the cantata repertoire.
St John Passion
New College Chapel Holywell Street, Oxford*MAIN CHAPEL SOLD OUT* N.B. Walk-ups will be admitted to the ante-chapel. This will be on a first-come-first-served basis and cost £20. (Doors open at 12.30pm). *** One of Bach’s best loved works, the St John Passion was first performed on Good Friday of 1724 in the St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. This operatic piece is presented by an ensemble of soloists, chorus, and orchestra, ‘Daring, forceful and poetic’ – Robert Schumann.
Easter Oratorio
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordBach’s festive scoring with trumpets and drums tells the story of the Resurrection through Simon Peter, John the Apostle, Mary Magdalene, and Mary Jacobe.
Word of Thunder
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordOn 2nd November 1723, Bach was in Störmthal and performed Cantata 194 to dedicate their new organ. Full of extrovert colours, Bach adapts the structure and style of an orchestral suite into cantata form.
Lutheran Vespers
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordA service of Lutheran Vespers featuring Bach’s Cantata 108 Es ist euch gut, daß ich hingehe. Performed by New College Choir, conducted by Robert Quinney, with the orchestra of the Oxford Bach Soloists.
Whit Sunday
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordBarely arrived in Leipzig, Bach probably announced himself with Cantata 59 on Whit Sunday 1723 (16 May), six days before his family joined him. Eight days later, he began his first Leipzig cantata cycle with Cantata 75.
The Heavens are Telling
St Michael at the North Gate Cornmarket, OxfordKeen to impress the congregations in Leipzig, Bach’s first Cantatas in his new role set the bar extraordinarily high. Both Cantata 75 (for Whit Sunday) and Cantata 76 are written on a great scale consisting of 14 movements
Behold and See
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordRecycling was very much a part of the 18th century composer’s armoury, and Bach’s efforts were the most inventive. Cantata 186, which started life in Weimar 1716, is presented in its later, expanded version.
Bath Recitals: A Thousand Years of Baroque
St Michael's Church Broad Street, BathOxford Bach Soloists welcomed as guests of the Bath Recitals: 'A Thousand Years of Baroque' in celebration of the opulence and grandeur of the Baroque featuring music by Handel, Bach, and Scarlatti!
Sanctus
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordA stirring Sanctus in C major, and three cantatas with big statements: BWV 179 preaches against hypocrisy with marvelous directness; BWV 77 illustrates the second of Jesus’ two commandments recounted in the gospel narratives; and BWV 69a enjoins us to praise the Lord and ‘do not forget what good He has done for you!’
Sound In My Body
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordThroughout the long summer and autumn Trinitarian period, the Lutheran lectionary’s emphasis on sin and sickness in mind and body reaches full tilt in expressions such as ‘The whole world is but a hospital’ in Cantata 25. But Bach’s music is the ‘balm of Gilead’ that heals all, above the ceaseless lament.
Help My Unbelief
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordThe cantatas Bach was writing at this time deal with the theme of Christians rejecting the material world and its temptations so as not to risk losing union with God. Cantata 162 relates to the parable of the royal wedding feast to which ‘many are called but few are chosen’.
Lutheran Vespers
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordA service of Lutheran Vespers featuring Bach’s Cantata 115 Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit. Performed by New College Choir, conducted by Robert Quinney, with the orchestra of the Oxford Bach Soloists.
Macmillan: A Celebration of Christmas
Recorded at Christ Church Cathedral St. Aldates, OxfordThe Oxford Bach Soloists will be performing for the second year at the 'A Celebration of Christmas' concert as part of Macmillan Cancer Support's fund-raising activities.
Bath Recitals: A Baroque Christmas
St Michael's Church Broad Street, BathOxford Bach Soloists welcomed as guests of the Bath Recitals: 'A Baroque Christmas' which brings the Bath Recitals 2019 programme to a seasonal close.
Magnificat: Cantatas for Christmas
New College Chapel Holywell Street, Oxford** SOLD OUT ** Please contact info@oxfordbachsoloists.com to be put on the waiting list.** Bach’s first Christmas in Leipzig comes with an explosion of festive music. After Advent’s ‘tempus clausum’ (closed period), Bach laid on nine major pieces for his singers and instrumentalists to master, including the Magnificat in E flat major, more commonly heard in its later D major version.
The Magi
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordHot off the heels of his first Christmas in Leipzig, Bach presents us with a vibrant set of Cantatas for the New Year and Epiphany. Cantata 190 is a paean heralding the New Year, and Cantata 153 takes the dramatic story of Herod and the Massacre of the Innocents as its inspiration. Epiphany is ushered in as a pair of horns brings the wise men with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in Cantata 65.
Calm the Storm
New College Chapel Holywell Street, OxfordCantata 155 displays the 31-year-old Bach’s enchanting innovation in his younger days with one of the finest bassoon obbligati ever written. Cantatas 73 and 81 take as their starting point two of Christ’s miracles: the healing of the leper, and the calming of the storm. The joyful Cantata 83 is possibly Bach’s first Cantata for the feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Candlemas) in which Simeon sings his famous Nunc dimittis.