Bach at the Sem enters its 24th season Sunday, Dec. 11, at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis [1] with a selection of works by J.S. Bach performed by the American Kantorei under Music Director Dr. Maurice Boyer.
The concert will feature two complete cantatas — BWV 121 “Christum wir sollen loben schon” and BWV 147 “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben,” containing the beloved “Jesus, Joy of man’s desiring”; the soprano title aria, “Süsser Trost, mein Jesus kömmt,” from BWV 151; and the Sinfonia from BWV 182 “Himmelskönig, sei willkommen.”
“The thread running through this program is that of John the Baptist’s joyful leap in his mother’s womb and his later call to ‘prepare the way of the Lord,’” Boyer said. “In these cantatas, one experiences a stirring call to wakefulness to the healing wonder and mystery of the Incarnation from which flows great consolation and abiding joy. As ever, Bach astonishes in his ability to create a sonic world that embodies the breadth of human emotion and experience from deep longing to true comfort to ecstatic joy.”
Another concert is planned for May 7, 2017, which will celebrate the Feast of Easter with three complete cantatas: BWV 6 “Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden”; BWV 104 “Du Hirte Israel, höre!”; and BWV 42 “Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats.”
Since its inception, Bach at the Sem has presented to the communities of Concordia Seminary and St. Louis at large more than 100 concerts of the music of premier Lutheran composer Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as music of Schütz, Buxtehude, Mendelssohn and other Lutheran composers.
All concerts begin at 3 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus. Concerts are free and open to the public. For additional information, please call 314-505-7569, email [email protected] [2] or visit www.csl.edu/bach [3].
About Concordia Seminary
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis provides Gospel-centered graduate-level theological education for pastors, missionaries, deaconesses, scholars and other leaders in the name of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) [4]. To learn more, visit www.csl.edu [1].