Bach: Cantatas 35 & 169 "Geist und Seele" & "Gott soll allein"

Featuring

Jonathan Cohen
Iestyn Davies
Arcangelo
Johann Sebastian Bach
Heinrich Schütz
Dietrich Buxtehude

Did you know?

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Composition History

Heinrich Schütz's Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott, published in 1628, is a setting of a 16th-century penitential chorale melody, preceded by a darkly scored instrumental sinfonia.

Performer Biography

Iestyn Davies, a countertenor, received an MBE from the Queen in 2017 for his services to music and has won a Grammy Award and three Gramophone Awards for recital recordings.

Composer Biography

Johann Sebastian Bach was known for not compromising, evident from his early brushes with authority in Arnstadt to his conflicts with the Leipzig city council.

Composition History

Bach's appointment as Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723 finally allowed him to realize his artistic goal of conducting 'a well-regulated church music to the honour of God'.

Composer Biography

Dieterich Buxtehude, an organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, was a prime influence on the young Bach, who visited him for three months in 1705/6.

Compositional Technique

Bach's Leipzig cantatas, which he called 'concerto' or 'Stück' (piece), were musical commentaries on the sermon, performed on alternate Sunday mornings in St Thomas's and St Nicholas's churches.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Bach himself acknowledged the 'incomparably difficult and intricate' style of his sacred music, which was vastly more challenging than his contemporaries' cantatas.