Tuesday 27 January 2015

Back to Bach

Back to Bach



A very happy new year to all our followers! 

After such a memorable performance of Messiah in December we are excited that our first concert of 2015 - exploring the motets of the Bach femily - is now less than two weeks away. So, as we begin a new year of music-making in York, join us at St Michael le Belfrey on Saturday 7 February to hear the Bach family in all their variety and inventiveness. Famously, the motets of JS Bach have fired the imagination of audiences and composers. Indeed it was one particular composer - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - who is reported to have heard a Bach motet on a visit to St Thomas’ Leipzig and exclaimed: ‘What is this?’ before declaring (allegedly in very high spirits): ‘Now, there is something one can learn from!’.  From JS Bach’s outstanding examples of the genre we select Der Geist hilft, Komm, Jesu, komm and Fürchte dich nicht.

    


We also move beyond JS Bach to explore other members of the family. Below is a short performance (in rehearsal at the Jack Lyons Concert Hall) of Ehre sei Gott by JM Bach which is included in our programme.  It is a spirited, festive movement which celebrates the song of the angels to the shepherds and very appropriately closes in homage to a new year (For this the host of angels are glad / And greet us with such a new year):


    


Alongside these works we are presenting lesser known motets by various members - cousin, father-in-law, son - of the Bach dynasty.  JL Bach was a cousin of Johann Sebastian and we sing his Unsere Trübsal and Das ist meine Freude.  Also from JS’s father-in-law John Michael Bach (1648-1694) we will perform Dem Menschen ist gesetzt. Finally, we also explore four extraordinary motets by CPE Bach. Musically, these motets take us right up to the beginnings of the classical style.    


Tickets priced at £18 (£16 concession) are available either in advance at the National Centre for Early Music by clicking here: http://bit.ly/18lemUb or on the door. Student stand-by tickets - priced at £5- are available at the door 10 minutes before the start of the concert.