Johann Sebastian Bach brought the cantata genre to perfection. During the concert with the participation of soloists, the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, the NFM Choir and the renowned Bach Collegium Japan, the artists will present three compositions of this genre and one of the famous orchestral suites of the Leipzig Kantor.
The Bach Collegium Japan was founded in 1990 on the initiative of Masaaki Suzuki, who still holds the position of conductor and artistic director. It was guided by the desire to familiarise the Japanese with the exquisite legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach in historical interpretations. The ensemble brings together both an orchestra and a choir, and its activities include annual concert cycles with Bach’s cantatas and a series of concerts of instrumental music. The Bach Collegium Japan has gained great recognition on the international scene thanks to the recordings for the BIS label of the most important vocal and instrumental works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Its members undertook in 1995 the enormous task of recording all of Bach’s church cantatas. As a result, over fifty albums were released, and this achievement was recognized with the ECHO Klassik 2014 award in the “Publishing Success of the Year” category.
The concert will begin with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major from the collection of four orchestral suites BWV 1066–1069. Bach used to call them ouvertures, which refers to the French overture that opens each suite, followed by a series of stylised court dances, usually in the same key. The work, in fact, opens with the Overture preceding the Bourrée, Gavotte and Minuet and is crowned with Réjouissance, the movement whose title means "joy". The musicians will also perform three cantatas by Bach: Was frag ich nach der Welt, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens and Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben. They were created in 1724, 1725 and 1726 i.e. when Bach lived in Leipzig – the city where he was a cantor at the St Thomas Church. His remit included, for example, writing cantatas for Sunday services and various church holidays. The works featured in the programme are part of this thread in his oeuvre.