Latest Past Events
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.
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’.
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.