Bach's festive cantatas

The programme is framed by two festive cantatas with timpani and trumpets: “Gott ist mein König” (BWV 71), a work composed for the inauguration of the Mühlhausen city council, opens the concert with polyphonic splendour and remarkable depth of content.
Particularly impressive is the aria of an old man – “Ich bin nun achtzig Jahr” (I am now eighty years old) – which, in the context of this evening, takes on a touching personal note.

The concert concludes with ‘Tönet, ihr Pauken’ (BWV 214), originally composed for the birthday of the Electress of Saxony – a Baroque homage full of sonic splendour and festive energy.
At the centre is the cheerful Coffee Cantata (BWV 211), a musical miniature full of wit, in which father and daughter argue about the merits of drinking coffee – Bach at his most entertaining.


A high-calibre, international quartet of soloists – Catalina Bertucci, Annekathrin Laabs, Daniel Johannsen and Philipp Jekal – perform together with Rudolf Lutz (J. S. Bach Foundation St. Gallen) on harpsichord and the choir and orchestra of the Berlin Bach Academy under the baton of its founder and jubilarian, Prof. Heribert Breuer.


Cast

• Choir of the Berlin Bach Academy
  
• Orchestra of the Berlin Bach Academy
  
• Heribert Breuer, Conductor
  
• Catalina Bertucci, Soprano
  
• Annekathrin Laabs, Alto
  
• Daniel Johannsen, Tenor
  
• Philipp Jekal, Bass
  

Program

Johann Sebastian Bach
"Sound, ye kettledrums! Sound ye trumpets!", Cantata BWV 214

Johann Sebastian Bach
"God is my King!", Cantata BWV 71