This season, BCS will present "Feast on Bach," a special series of concerts that draw from the great festival cantatas Bach composed for the major feast days of the liturgical year. J.S. Bach spent a great part of his creative life as the Kantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where one of his main responsibilities was to provide music for the services at the church, both on Sundays and on special feast days. Bach wrote hundreds of cantatas during his tenure as Kantor; of these approximately 225 survive today. Taken as a whole, they represent a remarkable diversity of expression and profound insight into the theological depths that Bach explored in his efforts to bring to his congregation an understanding of the Biblical texts that formed the foundations of the services. The scoring for these cantatas is as rich and varied as the subject matter: prominent throughout are high Baroque trumpets, a unique variety of expressive wind instruments including the lesser known and plaintive oboe d'amore and oboe da'caccia. The choruses of the cantatas are among Bach's finest writing, and the solo writing ranges the gamut from brilliant coloratura to achingly introspective.

This year we will take a chronological journey through the Lutheran church year in a series of 3 concerts that feature some of Bach's greatest examples in this genre.

Feast II: Cantatas of Lent, Easter, and the Ascension will be presented at the beginning of Lent, February 17th, 2018 with these cantatas:

• Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem, BWV 159

• Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4

• Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66

• Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt, BWV 112

• Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43

Here is the program booklet for our concert: Feast II Program.

You can find a short clip of our concert here.