8 Jun 2018
As part of the Bach Cantata Ring 2018 project, Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras will present a weekend of concerts at this year’s BachFest in Leipzig, performing a selection of Bach’s sacred Cantatas alongside the composer’s finest interpreters and performers.
The initial idea for the Leipzig Ring of Cantatas came from John Eliot Gardiner, president of the Bach Archiv, who envisaged performing 30 sacred cantatas, across nine concerts during one weekend, alternating between the churches of St Thomas and St Nicholas. John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists will be joined by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Masaaki Suzuki with the Bach Collegium Japan, and Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Gaechinger Cantorey. Completing the line-up will be Bach’s own choir, the Thomanerchor with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Thomaskantor Gotthold Schwarz.
‘The BachFest is the one festival where you have the authentic venues in which Bach’s Leipzig cantatas where first performed… What we hope to achieve is to give audiences a really strong flavour of the amazing variety and the quality of these best cantatas of Bach.’
John Eliot Gardiner
For this special event John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras have curated three concerts that will include a selection of Bach’s most popular cantatas, alongside motets by other composers chosen to bring to life the message of each cantata.
Programme - Friday 8 June
BWV 61 - Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
Jacobus Gallus: Jerusalem gaude gaudio (motet)
BWV 36 - Schwingt freudig euch empor
BWV 70 - Wachet! betet! betet! wachet!
Schütz: Ach Herr, du Schöpfer aller Ding, SWV 450 (motet)
BWV 110 - Unser Mund sei voll Lachens
Programme - Saturday 9 June
BWV 12 - Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
BWV 103 - Ihr werdet weinen und heulen
BWV 34 - O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe
Garbrieli: Timor et Tremor (motet)
BWV 20 - O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort
Programme - Sunday 10 June
BWV 19 - Es erhub sich ein Streit
Buxtehude: Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott (cantata)
BWV 101 - Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott
BWV 78 - Jesu, der du meine Seele
Schein: Freue dich des Weibes deiner Jugend (motet)
BWV 140 - Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
