The Leipzig Legacy: Bach and His Predecessors

Friday, October 25, 2013
8:00 pm
The Leipzig Legacy: Bach and His Predecessors
Location: Duke Chapel

Duke Vespers Ensemble Concert - Free and Open to the Public - Featuring Beverly Biggs, Elaine Funaro, Dr. Robert Parkins, and Dr. Lex Silbiger on the Bach harpsichord concerto.

Johann Sebastian Bach is by far the most reknowned of all the musicians to hold the position of cantor at the monumental Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Even so, he followed in a line of musicians who were both prolific and masterful composers. A survey of a few of these composers including Johann Hermann Schein, Johann Schelle, Johann Kuhnau, Georg Philip Telemann, provides us with a window into the music one was hearing around Leipzig at the beginning of the 18th century, which ultimately influenced the sacred music composed for the services at the Thomaskirche.

The Duke Vespers Ensemble will be joined by the resident Baroque orchestra Cappella Baroque, consisting of professional period instrument players from the region. Together they will share works ranging from intimate motets by Schein and Kuhnau to more grand works like Schelle’s chorale cantata Christus der ist mein leben, Teleman’s Concerto Polonois, and two compositions by J.S. Bach, the Concerto in A minor for Four Harpsichords and cantata 78 Jesu der du meine seele.

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