Christmas with Bach

Dedicated to the Virgin Mary are Meine Seel erhebt den Herren and Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. The closing chorale of the latter cantata is the extremely popular Wohl mir, dass ich Jesum habe. The programme also includes the very first cantata Bach wrote for Christmas Day: Christen, ätzet diesen Tag. This is an early work from Bach’s Weimar years, in which Bach boosts the Christmas spirit by using a wealth of instruments: four trumpets, timpani, three oboes, strings and basso continuo. No wonder that he performed this lively music again ten years later, on the occasion of his first Christmas as cantor at the Thomasschule, in Leipzig.

This performance is entrusted to the capable hands of the man who conducted the St Matthew Passion for us in 2003: Marcus Creed. Following his training at the famous King’s College in London, Creed became a sought-after choir conductor in Germany and Denmark. He has received high acclaim from the press for his recordings of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, motets and Mass in B minor.