St Thomas’s Boys Choir: |Cantatas for the Reformation 10/10

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. This extensive CD series kicks off with Bach’s cantatas for the Reformation and the feast day of St Michael. On the present recording, Georg Christoph Biller, current cantor at St Thomas, has added the hymn Dicimus grates tibi to the two cantatas in veneration of St Michael, Es erhub sich ein Streit BWV 19 and Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft BWV 50. Biller precedes the cantatas for the celebration of the Reformation, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott BWV 80 and Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild BWV 79, with the chorale Es wolle Gott und gnädig sein in a setting by Johann Walter. The inclusion of these works means that the listener can experience the music of a service at St Thomas during Bach’s lifetime in an especially authentic manner: this recording was made during the weekly cantata services at St Thomas – living music in a living atmosphere.