Portsmouth Baroque Choir is, once again, shining a performative light on niche Baroque repertoire: cantatas by Buxtehude and Kuhnau and an arrangement of Kuhnau by Bach. Performances of their works side by side are infrequent and, indeed, but for the efforts of collectors and musicologists, the chances of any of this music surviving down to our age were slim. Bach is a household name revered as one of the greatest musicians and composers of all time. So it is difficult for us to comprehend how in the winter of 1723 Bach was only the third choice to succeed Johann Kuhnau who had died the previous summer as cantor of St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig. For his audition Bach performed two cantatas BWV 22 and 23 the former paying stylistic homage Kuhnau the latter anticipating the music of the Passions.
Assuming Bach was also asked about his CV the names Kuhnau and Buxtehude would have figured prominently. Kuhnau is better-known as a composer of pictorial pieces for keyboard. Less well-known are his sacred cantatas and only a few have survived mostly thanks to Bach making a collection of them. We will be performing three: his masterpiece Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern for Epiphany Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden (I desire to die in peace’ based on the Song of Simeon) and Gott sei mir gnädig (Psalm 51 for Ash Wednesday). All three display a mixture of pietist moderation and operatic flare that would be adopted by Handel as well as by Bach. And for decades Kuhnau had directed the St Thomas choir the Thomanerchor founded in 1212 although it was not in particularly good shape when Bach took over. But that is another story.
Going back a little further there was Bach’s famous 260-mile walk from Arnstadt to Lübeck ostensibly to hear the greatest musician of the day Dietrich Buxtehude then aged seventy. Bach was given leave to stay one month but he stayed for four soaking up not only Buxtehude’s organ playing at the Marienkirche (the wonderful of roofscape of which is depicted in our concert poster) but also the weekly concerts (Abendmusik) organised by Buxtehude that included chamber music and dazzling concerted music on a monumental scale involving musicians from several different countries.
Buxtehude’s own music might have disappeared but for the compilation of manuscripts made by Swedish organist Gustaf Düben. While the memory of Buxtehude lived on as a skilled organist and composer of organ music his sacred vocal music was utterly forgotten until the early twentieth century when scholars began rediscovering it. Buxtehude composed his vocal works not to order but entirely on his own initiative. The possibility of achieving such a level of professional freedom while carrying out the duties of a church musician established the model for the likes of Handel Telemann and Bach.
Our concert begins with Buxtehude’s Advent cantata Ihr lieben Christen freut euch nun and the second half includes Jesu meine Freude that Bach must surely have heard while in Lūbeck as his later well-known setting shares striking similarities. The concert ends joyfully with a Magnificat setting attributed to Buxtehude. While some scholars believe the score bears all the marks of Buxtehude’s style others point out that it bears no resemblance to any of his known works. But then Buxtehude like Bach was a master at imitation.
To reinforce the Bach connection we’ll be singing the funeral motet Der Gerechte kömmt um attributed to Bach. It is a vernacular re-working Tristis est anima mea by Kuhnau. Believed to have been written 1730-5 it bears several hallmarks of Bach’s style: paired wind instruments in the accompaniment subtle harmonic recolouring and heightened expression.
For this concert of choral rarities we are delighted to have with us members of the Consort of Twelve. Additional instrumental colour and all vocal solos will be drawn from the Choir.
Event Venue
United Reformed Church, Fareham, United Kingdom
