St Thomas'’s Boys Choir: Cantatas for Passiontide 4/10

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.

The three cantatas recorded on this disc form part of the first cycle of cantatas which Johann Sebastian Bach presented to the congregation of St Thomas Leipzig in 1723. The cantatas Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe (BWV 22) and Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn (BWV 23) formed part of Bach’s audition for the post of cantor held by the city councillors of Leipzig on 7 February 1723, Estomihi Sunday. The texts of these two cantatas from Bach’s application portfolio tell of Christ’s decision to enter into Jerusalem, and of the healing of the blind man. Himmelskönig, sei willkommen (BWV 128) is the oldest cantata recorded here. It was written for performance at Weimar on Palm Sunday 1714 and sets to music the Gospel of that day, narrating Christ’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.

Georg Christoph Biller, current cantor at St Thomas, performs the cantatas with extraordinary boys’ voices in the solo parts for soprano and alto, a sign of the new recording’s unique quality.

The following recordings are published as part of the ten-CD series (Order No.THO2012):
Cantatas for Advent BWV 36, 61, 62 (ROP4040)
Cantatas for Christmas BWV 63, 110, 190 (ROP4043)
Cantatas for Epiphany BWV 3, 65, 72 (ROP4038)
Cantatas for Passiontide BWV 22, 23, 182 (ROP4044)
Cantatas for Easter BWV 4, 31, 67 (ROP4045)
Cantatas for The Ascension BWV 37, 43, 128 (ROP4041)
Cantatas for Pentecost BWV 34, 74, 172 (ROP4026)
Cantatas for Trinity Sunday BWV 75, 194 (ROP4036)
Cantatas for Marian Feast BWV 1, 125, 147 (ROP4039)
Cantatas for Reformation/Michaelmas BWV 19, 50, 79, 80 (ROP4031)


10% discount on our recently completed CD-edition: pay only €143.55 (instead of €159.50) if you order the ten-disc edition ‘The Liturgical Year with Johann Sebastian Bach’ today – you save €15.95!

Thomaner Paul Bernewitz
Thomaner Stefan Kahle
Thomaner Jakob Wetzig
Patrick Grahl
Tobias Hunger
Gotthold Schwarz
Matthias Weichert
Gewandhausorchester
Thomanerchor Leipzig
Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller