Bach Cantata Concert Celebrates Christ the King Sunday, Nov. 20

The Chapel's Bach Cantata concert on Sunday, November 20, at 5:00 p.m. has a theme of "Music for Christ the King Sunday" with two cantatas by J.S. Bach plus an instrumental piece by G.F. Handel. Admission is free.

The first, Cantata 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben ("Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life"), contains one of Bach's most celebrated chorales, known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." It was one of the earliest cantatas Bach composed at the start of his time as Cantor of St. Thomas's Church, Leipzig. The second is Cantata 116, Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ ("Thou Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ"). The two cantatas are separated by an instrumental work, Handel's Concerto Grosso, Op.3, No.6.

Watch a video about the concert with music from the Bach Cantata Series:

The Chapel's Dr. Philip Cave directs the performance, accompanied by the Mallarmé Chamber Players performing on period instruments, with chorus and these distinguished soloists and musicians:

• Amy Broadbent - soprano
• Tamsin Simmill - alto
• Matthew Hill - tenor
• Charlie Moore - bass-baritone
• Nicholas DiEugenio - violin and concert-master

The program is:

• Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 116
• George Frideric Handel's Concerto Grosso, Op.3, No.6.
• Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147

Paid parking is available on a first-come-first-served basis in the Bryan Center Garage at 125 Science Drive. ADA parking is available in surface lot at the same address.

Before the concert at 4:00 p.m. in Duke Divinity School's Goodson Chapel, Duke Chapel interim organist Chad Fothergill will give a talk "Between Trial and Triumph: Exploring Contrasts in Bach." The lecture will explore the textual and musical contrasts in the concert’s cantatas, particularly Bach’s treatments and handling of disparate ideas—terror and peace, death and life—within the musical architecture of cantata 116.

Families with young children are invited to drop in on one of two open rehearsals for the concert: Saturday, November 19, between 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 20, between 3:00 and 4:15 p.m. Both rehearsals are in Duke Chapel.