28 March 2024, 21:28 | Up to date: 28 March 2024, 22:04
Image:
Traditional FM / Getty
It’s the tricentenary of one of many nice junctures in classical music historical past, and celebrations in Leipzig culminate this Good Friday for one of many biggest works ever written.
Leipzig will perpetually maintain a particular place for music lovers. It’s the birthplace of Clara Schumann, and she or he and her husband Robert lived there for a number of years. Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn and dozens of different composers are related to the German metropolis, and additionally it is house to one of many world’s nice orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
However most of all, it’s a metropolis often called the religious house of Johann Sebastian Bach, and 2024 is a really vital anniversary yr.
Simply over 300 years in the past, in June 1723, 38-year-old Bach was appointed musical director of the St Thomas Choir, which means that he would head up music within the two church buildings of the thriving buying and selling hub of Leipzig. The St Thomas choir, which was based in 1212, was internationally famend as one of many best ensembles of the day.
The composer arrived from a royal palace in close by Köthen, the place his tenure as music director had led to frustration round cuts to his musical assets. Now in a busy metropolis, with a lot of Germany’s best musicians at his disposal, Bach was wanting to make his musical mark within the new publish. What adopted was an astonishing physique of church, vocal and instrumental music.
Learn extra: 10 of Bach’s all-time greatest items of music
Image:
Getty
Which means that 2023-4 sees not solely a tricentennial of Bach’s arrival, but in addition the Three hundredth anniversary of among the nice cantatas and large-scale works that had been first heard in these Leipzig church buildings.
This Easter weekend, it’s the anniversary of certainly one of his biggest and most beloved works, his St John Ardour, which was heard for the very first time on Good Friday in 1724.
Many Bach lovers will descend on Leipzig this weekend for 2 very particular performances to mark the event. The town’s well-known orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus is joined by Bach’s very personal choir, the St Thomas Choir, and star soloists in particular performances of the work.
St Thomas’ Church and Leipzig
From 1723 till the tip of his life in 1750, Bach was director of music for 2 of the town’s essential church buildings, the St Thomas Church and St Nicolas Church. The ornate St Nicolas Church was arguably the extra distinguished church on the time, nevertheless it’s in and round St Thomas’ the place the composer would have spent most of time, in each work and life – he and his giant household lived on the sq. beside the church.
In that sq. exterior St Thomas’, there now stands a big statue of the good composer. It’s a spot of pilgrimage for lovers of his music the world over.
The Ardour performances are a part of wider Three hundredth-anniversary celebrations within the metropolis. There are extra musical happenings in June with a particular version of the annual BachFest pageant and a celebration of choral cantatas entitled ‘Bach – CHORal TOTAL’.
Image:
Traditional FM
What makes the St John Ardour so particular?
The St John Ardour was the primary of Bach’s two surviving ardour oratorios. These expansive choral works inform the story of the final hours of Jesus’ life, as discovered within the Gospels of the New Testomony.
The work begins with Jesus and his disciples on this fateful closing night time. The drama begins with the arrival of the guards, resulting in his arrest, trial and eventual loss of life at 3pm on Good Friday.
It’s scored for a Baroque orchestra of woodwind and strings, joined by a full choir, 4 soloists and an Evangelist, who sings all through to relate the story. To this fairly conventional array of musicians, Bach provides some extra uncommon devices. In 1720s Germany the viola d’amore and viola da gamba had been already thought of fairly old style, however Bach introduced them again for this work. The fragile, human-voice high quality of those devices is heard in among the most intimate and emotional moments of the oratorio.
Bach’s St John Ardour, directed by Barnaby Smith
The composer makes his ardour a lot greater than merely a telling of this story. He makes the grand choruses moments of drama, the arias instances of human reflection, with the chorales or hymns as a gathering collectively of all of us, the listeners.
Bach by no means wrote an opera – however that is the closest he ever acquired to it. Over two hours, the music strikes via unimaginable drama, contrasts and stress. The brooding opening refrain ‘Herr, unser Herrscher, dessen Ruhm in allen Landen herrlich ist’ and ‘Kreuzige, kreuzige!’, or crucify refrain are held up as a few of Bach’s most arresting choral writing.
Image:
Getty
For the Three hundredth anniversary, performances of this nice work might be occurring all all over the world, such is the recognition and scope of his music as of late. However there’ll all the time be one thing further particular when it’s heard within the very buildings the place Bach composed and directed it.
After Thursday night time’s anniversary efficiency at St Thomas’, as is commonly customary for devotional works throughout Holy Week in Germany, there was no applause. Ending at 9pm, nearly on the dot, the one sound after the ultimate chorale was the tolling of the church’s bell exterior.
As individuals left in silence, many filed previous Bach’s tomb on the east finish of the church. Some knelt to the touch or kiss his closing resting place.
After 300 years, the awe surrounding the composer and this outstanding work lives as strongly as ever.
“Well bless their hearts.”
