The Cantatas 2018 - Home - Royal Academy of Music€¦ · 4 5 BACH AT THE ACADEMY The Last Year of...

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The Cantatas | 2018 Royal Academy of Music/ Kohn FoundationBach Cantata Series

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ONLINE BOOKING Opens at 10am on Tuesday 10 October 2017 from www.ram.ac.uk/bachOpen 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

BOOKING BY PHONE AND IN PERSONOpens at 10am on Tuesday 10 October 2017. Box Office telephone: 020 7873 7300

Tickets £15 (concessions £12)

Book now for season discounts:

book for all nine concerts and save 30%book for at least six concerts and save 20%book for at least four concerts and save 10%

Our Box Office is open for telephone and personal bookings from Monday to Friday, 10am–4pm. Answering service at all other times. We now have a telephone queuing system: please hold the line as it continues to ring, as your call will be answered as soon as the previous customer’s transaction has been completed.

Each cantata concert begins at midday and lasts around one hour. The Academy’s restaurant will be open for light refreshments from 10.30am until the start of each concert.

We do not charge any fees for Box Office bookings.

The Royal Academy of Music is where many leading musicians learn their trade. Our student community is truly international, representing more than fifty countries. The Academy’s wide range of concerts and events includes solos and chamber music, as well as ensembles of all kinds, from symphony orchestra to big band, opera, jazz, musical theatre, contemporary music and period performance.

Celebrating the complete sacred and secular cantatas by JS BachHOW TO BOOK

‘Anybody who’s been to these wonderful cantatas at the Royal Academy of Music knows they really are extraordinary’Sean Rafferty on BBC Radio 3 In Tune

Royal Academy of MusicMarylebone Road, London NW1 5HT

www.ram.ac.uk/bachBox Office telephone (10am–4pm, Monday–Friday): 020 7873 7300

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‘Don’t miss the Royal Academy of Music’s outstanding Sunday lunchtime series surveying all of Bach’s cantatas’The Times

‘A wonderful sense of binding intimacy... surely a glimpse of heaven’ Evening Standard

‘A satisfying spiritual start to the day... The performance was a model of vitality, concentration and period authenticity’ The Sunday Times

‘The relevance of Bach cantatas for the twenty-first century, and the sheer exuberance of the music, could not have been more refreshingly presented’Musical Opinion

‘The perfect Sunday lunch for any Bach lover’ The Times

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BACH AT THE ACADEMY

The Last Year of the Complete Cantatas and announcing a new cycle until 2024

Welcome to the tenth and final year of our epic Bach cantata voyage.

For this last chapter of the series we will be performing twenty-six cantatas alongside a special concert with our former Director of Opera and Felix Mendelssohn Professor of Music, Jane Glover, which includes the evergreen Magnificat. We’ll also be celebrating the Bach Prize in April with our own Iain Ledingham as the popular recipient. I very much look forward to both these dates as we end Part 1 of our adventure on the highest possible note in 2018.

For those unfamiliar with the format of our concerts, we do not follow a strict liturgical path when deciding which works to perform throughout the year. The cantatas are programmed in ways which we feel make sense musically, often binding or juxtaposing styles to bring additional perspectives to this inimitable oeuvre. This is a series of monthly concerts designed for the broadest church of belief and non-belief, a chance to introduce some of Bach’s greatest but least-known music to a wide-ranging audience.

Some visitors have a profound knowledge of the cantatas, while others are hearing this music for the first time. We know that

most listeners fall into this second category, which makes the whole project particularly thrilling, as performer and audience explore the bulk of the music without preconceptions. I believe this is what makes Academy cantata performances especially fresh, spirited and communicative. Regular supporters and those who have read the enthusiastic reports about these performances in the press will know that this ambitious series of concerts has become an integral part of life both at the Academy and on the London musical scene.

The distinguished violinists Rachel Podger, Madeleine Easton and Margaret Faultless form the select roster of orchestral leaders which has, with the choral group, developed a remarkably vibrant and dynamic ‘house style’ over these past nine years. This series has also become a celebration of Bach’s continuing inspiration to performers of many different traditions. Every season we incorporate a couple of concerts played on modern instruments, alongside our mainly ‘period’ instrument ensemble. Bach’s incomparable works for solo organ also feature in selected programmes, performed on the Duke’s Hall’s spectacular Elton John/Ray Cooper Organ. No other institution in the country is as steeped in Bach as the Royal Academy of Music, where we have been introducing his music to new audiences since our very early days in the 1820s. What’s more, every time we join together in homage to Bach’s timeless genius we are also, de facto, celebrating a European musical language with no barriers. This acts as an emblem for the life of an institution which continues to profit so deeply from its international outlook over nearly 200 years. And while this is the final year of our current cantata series, it is by no means the end of our Bach journey — news on the exciting next stage will follow in Autumn 2017.

‘Preparing and performing Bach’s cantatas is one of the great privileges of being a musician. Doing so with the Academy’s talented and passionate young musicians enriches the experience still further. This is an extraordinary project — a great gift to our cultural well-being’

Margaret Faultless

Head of Historical Performance

SUNDAYS IN MARYLEBONE

The Academy’s building is just across Marylebone Road from Marylebone Village. As well as being inspired by Bach’s immortal music, why not spend more of your Sunday enjoying the many other sights and sounds of Marylebone?

The Academy’s restaurant will be open from 10.30am to midday for light refreshments.

The restaurants, bars and cafés in Marylebone Village offer perfect meeting points from coffee catch-ups to the important lunchtime or evening rendezvous.

Marylebone Farmers’ Market takes place on Sundays from 10am to 2pm. Fresh seasonal flowers, fruits and foods are the order of the day.

Marylebone Village is also the perfect place to spend time exploring its unique collection of shops. Treats for the home, designer-wear fashions and presents for friends can all be found as you weave your way through the Village.

www.marylebonevillage.com

Jonathan Freeman-Attwood Principal

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SUNDAY 21 JANUARY BWV 115 Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit(Prepare yourself, my soul)BWV 90 Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende(A terrible end shall sweep you away)BWV 120 Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille(Praise waiteth for Thee, O God)BWV 190 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied! (Sing unto the Lord a new song!)(opening chorus - completion Professor Timothy Jones)

SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY BWV 184 Erwünschtes Freudenlicht(Longed-for light of joy)BWV 243 Magnificat

SUNDAY 25 MARCH BWV 24 Ein ungefärbt Gemüte(An unstained mind)BWV 44 Sie werden euch in den Bann tun I(They shall put you out of the synagogues I)BWV 134 Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß(A heart that knows its Jesus to be living)

SUNDAY 22 APRILBWV 126 Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort(Uphold us, Lord, in Thy Word)BWV 176 Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding(There is something stubborn and faint-hearted)BWV 192 Nun danket alle Gott(Now thank ye all our God)

SUNDAY 20 MAY BWV 27 Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?(Who knows how near is my end?)BWV 14 Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit(If it had not been the Lord who was on our side)BWV 47 Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden(For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased)

SUNDAY 17 JUNEBWV 2 Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein(Ah God, look down from heaven)BWV 145 Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzen(I live, O heart, for your delight)BWV 114 Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost(Ah, dear Christians, be comforted)

SUNDAY 7 OCTOBERBWV 13 Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen(My sighs, my tears)BWV 55 Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht(I, wretched man, a slave to sin)BWV 233 Mass in F

SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBERBWV 197 Gott ist unsre Zuversicht(God is our trust)BWV 542 Fantasia and Fugue in G minorBWV 191 Gloria in excelsis Deo(Glory to God in the highest)

SUNDAY 2 DECEMBERBWV 195 Dem Gerechten muß das Licht immer wieder aufgehen(Light is ever sown for the righteous)BWV 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!(Rejoice unto God in all lands!)BWV 248vi Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben (Christmas Oratorio Part 6)(Lord, if proud enemies rage)

www.ram.ac.uk/bach

THE CANTATAS: 2018 AT A GLANCE

All performances start at midday in the Academy’s Duke’s Hall and last around one hour

TICKETS £15 (concessions £12), season discounts availableBook from Tuesday 10 October 2017: By telephone 020 7873 7300 and in person (Monday–Friday, 10am–4pm)Online at www.ram.ac.uk/bach

Our final Jahrgang begins with three strongly contrasting cantatas. Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit, BWV 115, was first performed on 5 November 1724. Based on JB Freystein’s 1695 hymn, this work has long held a special place amongst Bach aficionados on account of the delectable instrumental writing in its opening chorus and, especially, its soprano aria, ‘Bete aber auch dabei’, one of the most profound and beautiful movements in all Bach’s music. Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende, BWV 90, has an altogether darker tone. Written for the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity in 1723, its opening impassioned tenor aria sets the scene for a sustained meditation on desolation and temptation. Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille, BWV 120, was written for a service to celebrate the election of the Leipzig Town Council in the late 1720s. It begins unusually with a highly ornate but gentle alto aria, rather than the customary communal rejoicing, but the festive sounds of trumpets and drums dominate the rest of this magnificent work. To celebrate the new year, the fragmentary opening chorus of

the New Year cantata Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied!, BWV 190, will be performed in a new completion by Timothy Jones.

21JANUARY 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 115 Mache dich, mein Geist, bereitBWV 90 Es reißet euch ein schrecklich EndeBWV 120 Gott, man lobet dich in der StilleBWV 190 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied! (opening chorus - completion Professor Timothy Jones)

Iain Ledingham director Madeleine Easton leader

Performed on modern instruments.

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We welcome the return of Jane Glover, the Academy’s Felix Mendelssohn Emeritus Professor of Music, to conduct this perennial favourite. Bach composed the original version of his Magnificat for Christmas Day 1723, interpolating Christmas hymns between some of the verses of the canticle. A decade later, for the Feast of the Visitation in July 1733, he thoroughly revised this masterpiece, transposing it from E flat major to D major, changing many details in the instrumentation and some of the ornamental details of the vocal writing, and omitting the Christmas interpolations. Today’s performance will be of that later, more familiar, version. The work’s twelve movements set the text with intense drama, great character and colour, and sure-footed pacing, leading one critic to describe it as ‘perhaps the most perfect of Bach’s shorter choral works’. The cantata Erwünschtes Freudenlicht, BWV 184, was composed for the first week of Pentecost in 1724. Its music, drawing on an earlier secular cantata, strikes a pastoral note perfectly in keeping with its new liturgical text.

Jane Glover guest director Rachel Podger leader

Performed on historical instruments.

18 FEBRUARY 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 184 Erwünschtes FreudenlichtBWV 243 Magnificat


Each of the cantatas in this concert demonstrates how Bach could reinforce the power of his musical ‘sermons’ by imaginatively subverting the congregation’s formal expectations. The theme of Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, BWV 24 — ‘do unto others what you would have them do unto you’ — is reflected in the cantata’s symmetrical structure. In its central chorus Bach sets the same text twice: first as a prelude with unequal voices, then as a fugue in which all the voices play the same role. Sie werden euch in den Bann tun I, BWV 44, is a meditation on martyrdom. It vividly portrays the persecution of a minority in its opening sequence of movements: an exceptionally fine lament for tenor and bass leads without a break into a vigorous chorus with the character of the crowd from the Passion settings. Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß, BWV 134, a cantata of praise and thanksgiving for the Easter season in 1724, was revised by Bach in later years to sharpen the impact of the music on the message of the text.

Iain Ledingham director Margaret Faultless leader


25 MARCH 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 24 Ein ungefärbt GemüteBWV 44 Sie werden euch in den Bann tun IBWV 134 Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß

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20MAY 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 27 Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?BWV 14 Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese ZeitBWV 47 Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden


Iain Ledingham director Rachel Podger leader


Each of today’s cantatas is dominated by its highly original opening chorus in which aspects of the text seem to have prompted Bach to dig deep into his stylistic resources. Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?, BWV 27, composed in October 1726, meditates on the believer’s preparation for death. Its opening chorus sets Ämilie Juliane von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt’s 1686 chorale in a particularly complex way, with recitative insertions commenting on the lines of the hymn as it unfolds. Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14, written for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, is based on Luther’s 1524 adaptation of Psalm 124. As if taking his cue from the venerable ancient source, Bach sets the first verse in the style of an old motet, rather than in his ‘modern’ chorale cantata manner. Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden, BWV 47, opens with a pithy text exemplifying the rhetorical pattern chiasmus, the crossing over of concepts: whoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be raised up. Bach’s musical response is simply awe-inspiring.

TICKETS £15 (concessions £12), season discounts available.Book from Tuesday 10 October 2017: By telephone 020 7873 7300 and in person (Monday–Friday, 10am–4pm)Online at www.ram.ac.uk/bach

Sometimes the continuities between Bach’s musical world and ours are striking. Some hymns that were well-known in Bach’s Leipzig are still part of the common currency of Christian worship: for example, Martin Rinckart’s Nun danket alle Gott (1636), which is the basis for Bach’s BWV 192. Although the cantata only sets three of the hymn’s verses, each of its movements has ample dimensions and the shape of the hymn tune permeates the music. At other times the discontinuities between Bach’s time and ours can shock. Thus the musical modernity of Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, BWV 126, based on Martin Luther’s 1542 hymn, belies an aggressive sectarianism in the text of the opening chorus.

There is an uneasy balance between superstition and rationality in the text of Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding, BWV 176, composed for Trinity Sunday in 1725. Of special interest is the way in which Bach reflects the irrational sentiments of the opening text by deforming the musical shapes in a mighty choral fugue.



22 APRIL 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 126 Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem WortBWV 176 Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt DingBWV 192 Nun danket alle Gott

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Two of today’s cantatas, belonging to Bach’s 1724–5 chorale cantata cycle, draw on venerable sixteenth-century Lutheran hymns. Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2, written for the Second Sunday after Trinity in 1724, is based on Martin Luther’s 1524 version of Psalm 12. The text warns Lutherans to be wary of slipping into heresy, and Bach — as if mindful of the dangers of departing from tradition — sets the opening verse as a chorus whose tone is deliberately archaic. In contrast, the opening of Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost, BWV 114, is in a modern concerto style, though a melancholy tone is struck by the melody of Johannes Gigas’s penitential hymn of 1561. The cantata’s two arias both contain memorable woodwind obbligatos, for flute and oboe respectively.

Iain Ledingham director Madeleine Easton leader


The nineteenth-century source of the Easter cantata Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzen, BWV 145, appears to lack some of the music demanded by Picander’s published text; but what remains is a delightful evocation of the joy of Easter.

17 JUNE 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 2 Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh dareinBWV 145 Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzen

BWV 114 Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost

07 OCTOBER 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 13 Meine Seufzer, meine TränenBWV 55 Ich armer Mensch, ich SündenknechtBWV 233 Mass in F

TICKETS as page 12



Poetic texts about sighs and tears usually inspired Baroque composers to give of their best, since the common musical vocabulary of the time was so rich in appropriate expressive conceits. Bach was no exception, and two of today’s cantatas show how imaginatively he was able to work within this tradition. Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen, BWV 13, first performed in January 1726, is a particularly powerful example of Bach’s penitential art.

Scored for strings, oboe da caccia and flutes, it shares its characteristic sound world with the melancholy cantata for solo tenor Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht BWV 55, from November 1726, whose motto — ‘Erbarme dich!’ — inspires a Passion-like response from the composer. Like Bach’s other so-called Lutheran Masses, the Mass in F, BWV 233, draws on pre-existing cantata arias and choruses for its music. Its arias parody the bass and tenor arias from Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben, BWV 102, from August 1726, and the final chorus is based on the opening movement of Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, from 26 December 1723.

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TICKETS as page 14

In this final concert of the series two celebratory cantatas preface the final cantata of the Christmas Oratorio. In the form that it has come down to us, Dem Gerechten muß das Licht immer wieder aufgehen, BWV 195, is a revision from the late 1740s of an earlier wedding cantata. Conceived on a luxurious scale, it must have been written for some wealthy Leipzig citizens. The text’s many references to justice suggest that the groom may have been a prominent lawyer or jurist. The solo soprano cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!, BWV 51, is a true virtuoso showpiece: as justly famous for its splendid trumpet obbligato as for its compelling concerto-like vocal writing. Part 6 of the Christmas Oratorio tells the story of the adoration of the Magi. Its jubilant tone, with a return to the brilliant key of D major from Part 1, is darkened by the final chorale that looks forward to Christ’s Passion. How fitting to end with a narrative that is both a conclusion and a pointer to the future.



02 DECEMBER 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 195 Dem Gerechten muß das Licht immer wieder aufgehenBWV 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!BWV 248vi Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben (Christmas Oratorio Part 6)


Bach is thought to have fashioned the cantata Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191, at Christmas 1745 from the Missa he had composed for presentation to the Elector of Saxony in 1733. Its three movements are most famous as the Gloria, Domine Deus and Cum sancto spiritu of the Mass in B minor. In BWV 191 the new texts for the aria and closing chorus allow us to marvel at the subtlety of Bach’s parody techniques, as well as the brilliance and colour of his instrumental and vocal writing. Envy the lucky couple for whose wedding in the late 1730s Bach composed the splendid cantata Gott ist unsre Zuversicht, BWV 197. With its ten movements, splendid choruses, full instrumental complement (including three trumpets and timpani), and generously formed arias, this is lavish celebratory music in Bach’s most exuberant vein.

Iain Ledingham director Rachel Podger leader James Orford organ*


04NOVEMBER 2018Sunday Midday

BWV 197 Gott ist unsre ZuversichtBWV 542 Fantasia and Fugue in G minor*

BWV 191 Gloria in excelsis Deo

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The Academy’s Bach cantata concerts are presented through the generosity and vision of the Kohn Foundation.

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