Bach in Leipzig

Exactly 100 years before the founding of the Royal Academy of Music, Bach sought pastures new and applied for the post of Director of Music at St Thomas’s Church, Leipzig. He arrived in 1723 and embarked on an ambitious project to compose a new cantata for every Sunday and Feast Day of the liturgical year. The result represents some of his most enduring and expansive choral creations. This concert series commemorates the Bicentenary of the Royal Academy of Music – its founding in 1822 and the admission of our first students in 1823 – and celebrates the magnificent works Bach created around a century earlier.

Peter Whelan, Artistic Director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Marsyas Ensemble, returns to the Academy for another Bach in Leipzig concert. O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort comprises an allegorical dialogue between Hope and Fear, before Fear reckons with the ‘vox Christi’. Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen opens with a plangent choral movement seeking forgiveness for the sins of humankind. Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn was written for the annual inauguration of the town council, celebrating the authority of both God and the newly appointed members of the council.