J.S. Bach: Cantatas for Epiphany, Vol.3

Live recording at St Thomas Leipzig

The liturgical year with Johann Sebastian Bach: in celebration of the 800th anniversary of Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir), Rondeau Production is publishing a ten-part CD series which presents a selection of cantatas for the liturgical year. In Leipzig, music for the liturgical year has an especially well kept tradition: up to the present day Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir) and the Gewandhausorchester (Gewandhaus Orchestra) join forces each week in the performance of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas at the church of St Thomas.

Like the recently released CD containing cantatas for Advent, the disc for the feast of Epiphany presents works for the beginning of the liturgical year: the Epiphany is the first ecclesiastic feast day of the new calendar year. Celebrated on 6 January, it follows on seamlessly from the Christmas celebrations and those for the turn of the year. Translated from Greek, epiphany originally means ‘appearance of the Lord.’ The recorded cantatas “Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen” (BWV 65), “Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid” (BWV 3), and “Alles nur nach Gottes Willen” (BWV 72) emphatically relate the biblical message to the reality of mankind in the present. This makes Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas, first and foremost, musical sermons. The cantatas were written for the feast day of Epiphany itself, and for the following Sundays.

The current cantor at St Thomas, Georg Christoph Biller, is fortunate to have boys from the choir’s own ranks performing the soprano and alto solos; a hallmark of the new recording’s unique level of artistry.