St Thomas’’s Boys Choir: |Cantatas for Easter 5/10

The liturgical year with Johann Sebastian Bach: Rondeau Production and Deutschlandradio Kultur are currently releasing a ten-disc CD series with Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig). The choir presents selected cantatas for the liturgical year in new, vibrant recordings. The music for the liturgy holds a very special place at St Thomas’s Church Leipzig: even today, the church’s boys choir and the Gewandhausorchester (Gewandhaus Orchestra) perform a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach every week. Bach composed numerous cantatas for Easter, three of which – Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4), Der Himmel lacht, die Erde jubilieret (BWV 31), and Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ (BWV 67) – are recorded here. The production is complemented by a contemporary work: Georg Christoph Biller, cantor at St Thomas, composed his St Thomas Easter Music on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of St Thomas’s school. Under his direction, St Thomas’s Boys Choir gave the work its premiere performance together with the Gewandhaus Orchestra at St Thomas Leipzig on Easter Sunday 2012. Like Bach, Biller uses a framework of choruses, chorales, and recitatives for his composition. This CD features the first recording of the new work in its arrangement for organ.