300 years of Johann Sebastian Bach

It was 300 years ago, in 1723, that Johann Sebastian Bach took up the position of Thomaskantor, or music director of St. Thomas Choir in Leipzig. So, of course, the city's Bach Festival in 2023 was a giant anniversary celebration.

Bach was the not the first choice of the Leipzig City Counsellors to become Thomaskantor. They would have preferred the very experienced and very famous Georg Philipp Telemann, but they couldn't tempt him away from Hamburg, where he was getting a better salary for a comparable position. Another composer, Christoph Graupner, was also on the shortlist, but he was still in the services of a count, and it would have cost too much to release him from the contract. It was only half a year later that the Leipzig Counsellors thought of Johann Sebastian Bach, the talented Kapellmeister from the nearby city of Köthen.

The big day finally arrived on May 30, 1723: Bach conducted the early mass in Leipzig's St. Nicholas Church for the parish community. He had composed the cantata "Die Elenden sollen essen," "The poor shall eat," for his debut, and it remains one his most popular cantatas to this day.

The work consists of two parts and was written so that the sermon could be interspersed among the music. This may be the reason that the total length, around 35 minutes, didn't raise any eyebrows. You see, there was clause in Bach's contract that said his music should be neither too long nor too operatic, and that it should move people to solemn reflection.

The subject of the Bach cantata "Die Elenden sollen essen," or "The poor shall eat" is the moment in the Gospel of St Luke when Lazarus is compared to the rich man. The story is a call to help the poor in order to secure a place in heaven and to practice Christian brotherly love.

Andreas Reize, who is, by the way, the 18th person to hold the Thomaskantor position after Bach, tells us more: "Bach made his debut with a bang with 'Die Elenden sollen essen.' You really get the sense that he wanted to make his ambitions clear, coming from his position as Kapellmeister from Köthen. There are lots of dance-like movements, an overture at the start, which then flows into this 'lamento' – extremely impressive."

A trailer for a musical series

Bach festival director Michael Maul sees the seeds of Bach's later works in this cantata: "In modern terms, I would call it a kind of trailer for a large musical series, where – just as in a good movie trailer – you get glimpses of all the unique moments that will then be shown more fully in the film."

Both the St. Thomas Choir, a boys choir, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, have deep historic roots in Leipzig. The Gewandhaus Orchestra is the oldest civic (as in, non-royal) symphony orchestra in the world. It was founded in 1743 by 16 nobles and non-nobles and was initially a sort of private concert enterprise. Today, in addition to packed concert seasons, the renowned orchestra also performs Bach cantatas on a weekly basis in St. Thomas Church. They're joined there by the St. Thomas Choir, which is also internationally famous thanks in part to extensive touring. The choir has been around for 800 years, but it's only since Bach that the Thomaskantor, or music director of the choir, has been numbered. He was literally number one.

2023 was the 300th anniversary of Bach becoming the Thomaskantor. To celebrate, the city of Leipzig's annual Bach Festival took place under the motto "Bach for Future." They wanted to highlight how Bach remains relevant today and continues to inspire new ideas in contemporary composers.

It was along those lines that the Bach Festival commissioned clarinetist, conductor and composer Jörg Widmann to compose a cantata that reflects the present-day.

Traditional cantata form

Widmann sees his cantata as a journey. It starts by doubting the existence of God and ends by singing of peace and praising God with hallelujahs. This final text is by Paul Gerhard, a poet whose texts Bach also set to music.

Widmann used the traditional cantata form, featuring solos and chorales, but he made it his own by including texts from different sources and by different authors. War and peace were the themes of the work, but Widmann wasn't thinking only of the war in Ukraine when he composed the cantata. Rather, he was thinking of war in general and throughout all time. He explains:  "In this commission I got from the Bachfest, it was not possible to simply say, 'Oh yes, let's praise God and let's praise Bach and then let's go home.' You know, it's not enough. I think it's really necessary to address these things. Therefore my piece ends with a very short but urgent call for peace. You know, call me naive, yes, probably rightly so. And by the way, naivety in a well understood sense is a kind of precondition to make music, to make arts. So nothing against naivety, in a well-understood sense.

Those deep thoughts from composer Jörg Widmann close out this Deutsche Welle Festival Concert.

Performances in this recording:

All music recorded by the Bach Festival and Deutsche Welle (DW) at the St Thomas Church, Leipzig, on June 10 and 11, 2023

1. Johann Sebastian Bach
"Christ lag in Todes Banden," BWV 4.2
 - Sinfonia
 - Chorale
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir
Ton Koopman, conductor

2. Johann Sebastian Bach
"Christ lag in Todes Banden," BWV 4.2
- Duet (soprano, alto)
- Aria (tenor)
- Chorus
- Aria (bass)
- Duet (soprano, tenor)
- Chorale
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir
Ton Koopman, conductor
Elisabeth Breuer, soprano
Maarten Engeltjes, countertenor
Tilman Lichdi, tenor
Klaus Mertens, bass

3. Johann Sebastian Bach
"Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen," BWV 66.3
1. Chorale 
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir
Ton Koopman, conductor

4. Johann Sebastian Bach
"Wer da gläubet und getauft wird," BWV 37
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir
Ton Koopman, conductor
Catherine Manson, violin
Elisabeth Breuer, soprano
Maarten Engeltjes, countertenor
Tilman Lichdi, tenor
Klaus Mertens, bass

5. Johann Sebastian Bach 
"Du Hirte Israel, höre," BWV 104
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir
Ton Koopman, conductor
Tilman Lichdi, tenor

6. Johann Sebastian Bach 
"Herr, wie du willt, so schicks mit mir," BWV 73
Collegium Vocale Gent
Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
Aisling Kenny, soprano
Benedict Hymas, tenor
Peter Kooij, bass

7. Johann Sebastian Bach
"Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen," BWV 81
Collegium Vocale Gent
Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
Alex Potter, countertenor
Benedict Hymas, tenor
Peter Kooij, bass