Jesu, meine Freude: J S Bach 1685-1750 / Dixit Dominus: G F Handel 1685-1759

Both Jesu, meine Freude and Dixit Dominus were composed for special occasions which had a direct bearing on the style and nature of each work. Jesu, meine Freude was written for a funeral in St Thomas's, Leipzig. The fact that Bach composed the work as a funeral motet is significant, as the text abounds with stark contrasts between images of heaven and hell, often within a single movement. Bach's response to the text maximises these contrasts, resulting in a motet with an uncommonly wide emotional range. Dixit Dominus is the musical centrepiece of Handel's setting of the complete Vespers service for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 1707. He was only 22 at the time, and the work overflows with youthful exuberance; but Dixit Dominus remains one of Handel's most powerful works, and a fine testament to his brief spell in Italy.

"This interpretation, its subtlety and depth, restraint and exaltation, would have surely bowled over the greatest Bach sceptic ... magnificently performed" -- The Evening Post

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Download programme notes for this performance (Microsoft Word document, 38 Kb)

Soloists

Soprano Pepe Smythe Rosalind Salas
Alto Andrea Cochrane
Tenor Ewen Griffiths John Murray
Bass Tony Sandle

Violin Bronwen Pugh Graham McPhail
Viola Shelley Wilkinson Lisa Biggs
Cello Margaret Cooke
Harpsichord Robert Petre

Chamber Organ Simon Ravens

Simon Ravens plays the Drake Chamber Organ, part of the Keyboard Collection
at the School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington

Sponsorship O'Connor Grieve & Co.

Programme

Jesu, meine Freude: J S Bach 1685-1750

i. Chorale: Jesu, meine Freude
ii. Es ist nun nichts
iii. Chorale: Unter deinem schirmen
iv. Denn das gesetz
v. Chorale: Trotz dem alten drachen
vi. Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich
vii. Chorale: Weg mit allen schatzen
viii. So aber Christus in euch ist
ix. Chorale: Gute nacht, o wesen
x. So nun der geist
xi: Chorale: Weicht, ihr trauergeister

Interval

Dixit Dominus: G F Handel 1685-1759

i. Dixit Dominus
ii. Virgam Virtutis
iii. Tecum principium
iv. Juravit Dominus
v. Te es sacerdos
vi. Dominus a dextris tuis
vii. De torrente in via
viii. Gloria Patri

8pm, Saturday 19 December 1987
Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Molesworth Street, Wellington

dir. Simon Ravens

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