Bach Cantatas: Death, Wedding, and Eternity

Join us for a rare and striking programme of sacred cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed on period instruments by some of Australia’s finest early music specialists. This concert spans the breadth of human experience — from funeral lament to joyful wedding celebration.

The centrepiece is the Australian premiere of O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (BWV 118) in its original scoring for trumpets, cornetto, sackbuts, and choir — without strings or continuo — as likely performed at the graveside of a Leipzig dignitary. Evoking the sound world of seventeenth-century funerals, this austere and luminous work stands alone in Bach’s output, offering a vision of consolation and heavenly peace.

Der Herr denket an uns (BWV 196), a concise and elegant cantata probably composed for a wedding, sets Psalm 115 in a celebratory tone. It is believed to have been written for the marriage of Johann Lorenz Stauber, the very clergyman who officiated at Bach’s own wedding in Dornheim.

Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe (BWV 25), composed in Leipzig in 1723, opens with a stark and anguished chorus that evokes the language of illness and decay. Drawing on Psalm 38 and chorales by Johann Heermann, the cantata reflects on the soul’s affliction and the healing mercy of God, with rich scoring for cornetto, sackbuts, recorders, oboes, and strings.

Performed in the beautiful acoustic of St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Newtown, this programme brings together rarely heard gems from Bach’s sacred oeuvre. We hope to see you there!