La Petite Bande - Sigiswald Kuijken

Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande open the 'Bach and High Days' series with four small-scale cantatas for four successive Sundays in the church year. For this performance Kuijken opts to let the soloists sing the choral parts too. The four cantatas were written in the space of four weeks in the autumn of 1726. La Petite Bande performs them in the 'correct' chronological order. This gives the listener an insight into four weeks in the creative life of Bach during his fourth year as cantor at the Thomaskirche in Liepzig. The four cantatas are part of Bach's third series of church cantatas, in which he concentrated both on two-part works elaborated on a grand scale and on intimate compositions conceived mainly as solos. The best known of the four, 'Ich will den Kreuzstab tragen', is a profound meditation on the part suffering plays in human existence. 'Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan' is the only true choral cantata in the series, while 'Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht' is one of Bach's rare cantatas for solo tenor. This last composition is undoubtedly the most underestimated work of the four: the chromatic phrases in the opening aria alone are breathtaking. During this concert Sigiswald Kuijken will introduce the 'violoncello da spalla' (shoulder cello) to the audience for the first time.