The liturgical year with Johann Sebastian Bach: Rondeau Production is publishing a ten-part CD series which presents a selection of cantatas for the liturgical year. In Leipzig, music for the liturgical year is an especially well kept tradition: up to the present day the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir) and the Gewandhausorchester (Gewandhaus Orchestra) have joined forces each week in the performance of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas at the church of St Thomas.

The current disc in the series turns to feasts for the Blessed Virgin Mary: the cantata “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” was composed in 1725 for the feast of Mary’s Purification, and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” for the feast of the Annunciation in the same year. The famous chorale “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” forms part of the cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”. This composition originally set a different text, and was intended for the fourth Sunday of Advent. After a number of modifications to the text, the cantata was performed in Leipzig on the feast of the Visitation, also in 1725. The cantata’s opening chorus gains its particularly festive character through the initial trumpet motif.

The current cantor at St Thomas, Georg Christoph Biller, is fortunate to have boys from the choir’s own ranks performing the soprano and alto solos - a hallmark of the new recording’s unique level of artistry.

Live recording.