St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig: |Cantatas for Christmas 2/10

The liturgical year with Johann Sebastian Bach: in celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig) 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 the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig) 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. The second disc within the comprehensive ten-part series features recordings of two Christmas cantatas, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens BWV 110 and Christen, ätzet diesen Tag BWV 63, as well as of a cantata for New Year’s Day, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV 190, all three of which are performed by the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig). For the soprano and alto parts, the current cantor at St Thomas, Georg Christoph Biller, has chosen exceptional soloists from the choir’s own ranks – a hallmark of this recording’s outstanding quality, and one that distinguishes it from other productions. Biller precedes each of the three cantatas with a hymn setting celebrating the birth of Christ. These four-voice compositions are from the Florilegium selectissimorum Hymnorum by Erhard Bodenschatz.