WHICH BACH
CANTATA TODAY?

The statue of Bach outside the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.  

Recent cantata day posts

A view of Schloss Weimar around 1730.

October 13, 2024
Trinitatis XX or 20th Sunday after Trinitatis
A portrait of Augustus III of Poland, aged 19, done in 1715 by the French painter Nicolas de Largillière. 

October 7, 2024
Birthday of August III of Poland, Elector of Saxony
The cover page of Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5, from Bach's own manuscript, part of the Stefan Zweig collection at the British Library.

October 6, 2024
Trinitatis XIX or 19th Sunday after Trinitatis
Portrait of Augustus III of Poland, Elector of Saxony -- workshop of Louis de Silvestre. He wears Polish garb and the Orders of the Golden Fleece and of the Holy Spirit. On the left hand side, on a chair upholstered with his crowned monogram, lies the mantle that the Saxon Government offered him for his coronation. To the right of the composition are, on a console, the insignias of regal power: crown, sceptre, and orb (Wikipedia).

October 5, 2024
Election anniversary of August III as King of Poland
Katharinenstraße 16, 14 and 12, engraving by Johann George Schreiber in 1720. Number 14, the house in the middle, is Café Zimmermann, home of the musical ensemble Collegium Musicum, which Bach led from 1729 to 1741. The house was destroyed during a heavy Allied air raid on December 4th, 1943.

October 1, 2024
Café Zimmermann season opener 1729
Painting by Francesco di Giovanni Botticini (1446-1498) of the three archangels (from left to right Michael, Raphael, Gabriel) with young Tobias (1470 - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy).

September 29, 2024
Michaelmas (Feast of Saint Michael and the Archangels)
Young members of the Thomanerchor performing. The Thomanerchor was founded in 1212, and the Thomaskantor is its director, as was Bach from 1723 until his death in 1750.

September 29, 2024
Trinitatis XVIII or 18th Sunday after Trinitatis
Schloss Wiederau, where Angenehmes Wiederau, BWV 30a, was first performed on September 28th 1737.

September 28, 2024
Celebration Johann Christian von Hennicke
A 16th century woodcarving of Johannes Gigas (1514-1581), a German Protestant theologian, hymn writer, educator and reformer. The libretto of Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost, BWV 114, is based on a hymn text by Gigas with the same name.

September 22, 2024
Trinitatis XVII or 17th Sunday after Trinitatis
Probable portrait of Antonio Vivaldi, around 1723. Bach rendered hommage to this great Italian composer in the opening bars of the tenor aria in the cantate, Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?, BWV 27: it echoes the opening lines of Antonio Vivaldi's "Spring" of the Four Seasons, which was published the year before in 1725.

September 15, 2024
Trinitatis XVI or 16th Sunday after Trinitatis
On Saturday September 11, 2021, the Swiss Andreas Reize took office as the new Thomaskantor, in succession of Gotthold Schwarz, who retired in June of 2021. For his inauguration concerto with the Thomaner, he performed (among others) Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 99, the cantata for Trinitatis XV, which fell on the following Sunday September 12th. Andreas Reize is the first non-German and non-Protestant to hold the post (he is a Catholic), which apparently led to some discussion.

September 8, 2024
Trinitatis XV or 15th Sunday after Trinitatis
Portrait of crown prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony by Rosalba Carriera around 1739-1740 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden). Rosalba Carriera was a female rococo painter from Venice, Italy, who was admired by the crown prince's father Frederick Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.

September 5, 2024
Birthday crown prince Friedrich Christian von Saksen
Jesus healing ten lepers, the evangelical reading for Trinitatis XIV. 14th century fresco from the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani, located south of the city of Peć, Kosovo.

September 1, 2024
Trinitatis XIV or 14th Sunday after Trinitatis
Schloss Kleinzschocher, southwest of Leipzig in Bach's time, but now engulfed by the city, was the residence of Carl Heinrich von Dieskau.

August 30, 2024
Birthday of Carl Heinrich von Dieskau
The Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) today, which houses the Museum of City History of Leipzig.

August 30, 2024
Ratswechsel 1723
View of the city of Leipzig centered on the main square and the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) from 1712.

August 29, 2024
Ratswechsel 1742
The main hall inside the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) of Leipzig today.

August 27, 2024
Ratswechsel 1731
Etching of the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) in Leipzig from 1672.

August 26, 2024
Ratswechsel 1748
The Good Samaritan, painted around 1616 by Jacob Jordaens, a painter from my hometown Antwerp (Louvre Abu Dhabi).

August 25, 2024
Trinitatis XIII or 13th Sunday after Trinitatis
The oldest known depiction of Leipzig's Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) from 1547, before the modifications begun by Hieronymus Lotter around 1556, which have given the building its current dimensions and aspect, and which was also the building Bach was familiar with.

August 25, 2024
Ratswechsel 1727
Painting of Leipzig by Christian Schildbach (1765).

August 18, 2024
Trinitatis XII or 12th Sunday after Trinitatis
A statue of Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar.

August 11, 2024
Trinitatis XI or 11th Sunday after Trinitatis
On display in the Bachhaus in Eisenach is the Bach Goblet, one of very few undoubtedly authentic household items left from Bach's possessions. It is a Bohemian-Saxon work from around 1735. In the front, there is a VIVAT with a double (mirrored) monogram of the letters JSB underneath. The ends of the letters terminate in points. In total, there are 14 of these points – the Bach number, since B+A+C+H = 2+1+3+8 = 14 according to baroque numerology. In the back, there is a dedication poem that includes the name of Bach both in letters and in (German) musical notation. It is still an unsolved riddle who may have been the donor of the goblet, and on what occasion Bach received it.

August 11, 2024
Marriage
Wood engraving of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, 1592. The Nikolaikirche was also under the supervision of Bach as Thomaskantor, and he performed many cantatas there too.

August 4, 2024
Trinitatis X or 10th Sunday after Trinitatis
For this celebration of the nameday of August, it is appropriate to use a painting by German expressionist August Macke, called "Coloured composition hommage to Johann Sebastian Bach" (1912). Macke, born in 1887, died on the front in World War 1, in the Champagne region in 1914.

August 3, 2024
Nameday August III and Dr August Friedrich Müller
Autograph of a soprano aria in the cantata Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht, BWV 105 (source: Wikipedia)

July 28, 2024
Trinitatis IX or 9th Sunday after Trinitatis
The grave of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

July 28, 2024
Anniversary of Bach's death
The Bach glass window in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

July 21, 2024
Trinitatis VIII or 8th Sunday after Trinitatis
'Loaves and Fishes (from Jesus is my homeboy)' is a picture from 2003 by photographer David LaChapelle (born 1963). 

July 14, 2024
Trinitatis VII or 7th Sunday after Trinitatis
As a break from practicing and studying, students from the Thomasschule enjoy a game of football.

July 7, 2024
Trinitatis VI or 6th Sunday after Trinitatis
Visitation, a painting by Rogier Van der Weyden (1399-1464), Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig.

July 2, 2024
Visitation
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, a cartoon (a design for a tapestry) by Raphael (1483-1520). The cartoons were commissioned by Pope Leo X for tapestries intended for the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons are on display in the wonderful Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum in London. Painting suggested to me by subscriber Jennifer. 

June 30, 2024
Trinitatis V or 5th Sunday after Trinitatis
Gravure by Christian Beyer (1482-1535) depicting the Imperial Diet in Ausburg, with the Augsburg Confession being presented to Emperor Charles V on the left.

June 26, 2024
200th anniversary of Augsburg Confession
Russian icon depicting the nativity of St John Baptist. His parents, Elisabeth and Zachariah, an elderly couple, were visited by the Archangel Gabriel to announce the birth of a son who they should name John. Zachariah did not believe the prophecy and was struck with numbness, until, on the day of the birth, he wrote "His name is John", which is depicted here.

June 24, 2024
Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
The Sermon on the Mount, 1598, by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

June 23, 2024
Trinitatis IV or 4th Sunday after Trinitatis
View of Weimar with the Herderkirche and the Stadtschloss.

June 16, 2024
Trinitatis III or 3rd Sunday after Trinitatis
Bach was born in Eisenach, and in the mid-19th century it was determined that this house at Frauenplan 21 was the original birthhouse of the great master. When it was threatened by demolition in 1905, the Neue Bachgesellschaft (New Bach Society), founded in Leipzig in 1900, decided to buy the house and establish a museum there. Research in 1928 showed however that members of the Bach family had indeed resided at this address, but that it was not JS Bach's birthhouse - that house was long gone. The picture shows the opening of the Bachhaus in 1907.

June 9, 2024
Trinitatis II or 2nd Sunday after Trinitatis
The St. Bartholomäikirche in Dornheim, where Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196 was created in 1708. It is also the church where Bach married his first wife, Maria Barbara, in 1707.

June 5, 2024
Marriage of Johann Lorenz Stauber
Then and now, the Thomanerchor is instrumental in the performance of Bach cantatas in the Thomaskirche, here under direction of the previous Thomaskantor, Gotthold Schwarz. The predecessors of these choristers performed under Bach's direction as Thomaskantor.

June 2, 2024
Trinitatis I or 1st Sunday after Trinitatis
The Holy Trinity by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), the most famous painter from my hometown Antwerp. Painted around 1620, it now resides in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, which reopened after extensive restorations in 2022. Definitely worth a visit!

May 26, 2024
First Sunday after Pentecost or Trinitatis
Pentecost by Italian painter Giotto (1267-1337), National Gallery, London.

May 21, 2024
Whit Tuesday
Pentecost, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, a book of hours by the Dutch painters the Limbourg brothers, left unfinished in 1416 when all three brothers and their patron, Jean, Duc de Berry, died, possibly from the plague. Musée Condé, Chantilly, France.

May 20, 2024
Whit Monday
Pentecost by the Greek-Spanish painter El Greco (1541-1614), Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

May 19, 2024
Pentecost or Whit Sunday
The Thomaskirche in Leipzig, not really in a setting that Bach would recognise.

May 12, 2024
1st Sunday after Ascension Day or Exaudi
The Ascension of Christ, 1775, by American painter John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

May 9, 2024
Ascension Day
Water colour painting of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig by Louis Braun, around 1870. Louis Braun was a German painter, mostly known for his battlescenes, especially those of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871.

May 5, 2024
5th Sunday after Easter or Rogate
Students of the Thomasschüle in Leipzig studying for their performances in the Thomanerchor.

April 28, 2024
4th Sunday after Easter or Cantate
A contemporary etching of Christiana Mariana von Ziegler (1695-1760), the author of the libretto for Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103.

April 21, 2024
3rd Sunday after Easter or Jubilate
The good shepherd, mosaic in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy (from around 425).

April 14, 2024
2nd Sunday after Easter or Misericordia Domini
The incredulity of Saint Thomas by Italian painter Caravaggio from 1601-1602. Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam, Germany.

April 7, 2024
1st Sunday after Easter or Quasimodogeniti
Next to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on a sunny spring day.

April 2, 2024
Easter Tuesday
Christ with two disciples on the road to Emmaus and braking the bread at the evening meal, Carolingian ivory relief from around 900-950, Metz, France.

April 1, 2024
Easter Monday
The resurrection of Christ by Paolo Veronese, around 1570, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie.

March 31, 2024
Easter
The baptismal font in the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, over which Johann Sebastian Bach was baptised on April 2nd 1685, two days after his birth.

March 31, 2024
Bach's birthday Gregorian calendar
The Harrowing of Hell by Andrea Mantegna, around 1470. An important part of Mediaval Easter traditions, the Harrowing of Hell describes the descent by Christ into Hell between his death and resurrection to release the innocent victims of the devil.

March 30, 2024
Holy Saturday or Sabbatum Sanctum
Central panel of the altarpiece in the Herderkirche in Weimar. The remarkable triptych was begun by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1552/53, shortly before his death, and completed in 1555 by his son Lucas Cranach the Younger. It is regarded as a major work of art of the 16th century in Saxony and Thuringia. You can see Martin Luther on the right holding a bible.

March 29, 2024
Good Friday or Passionis Domini
The Annunciation (1434–1436) by Jan Van Eyck (c.1390-1441), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. It is thought that it was the left (inner) wing of a triptych; there has been no sighting of the other wings since before 1817.

March 25, 2024
Annunciation
The Entry into Jerusalem, 14th century painting by Giotto (c.1267-1337).

March 24, 2024
Palm Sunday or Palmarum
Schlossanlage Köthen, home of the princes of Köthen, around 1650 in a copper etching by Caspar Merians (Bach-Archiv Leipzig).

March 24, 2024
Funeral of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen
A wooden memorial plate above the entrance portal of the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, commemorating Bach's baptism according to the Julian calendar.

March 21, 2024
Bach's birthday Julian calendar
The statue of Paul Fleming (1609-1640) in front of the city hall of Hartenstein. Fleming wrote the hymn on which In allen meinen Taten, BWV 97, is based.

March 17, 2024
5th Sunday of Lent or Judica
Statue of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy next to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Mendelssohn's performance of the Matthaeus Passion in 1829, the first performance since Bach's lifetime, was a watershed moment in the rediscovery of Bach's work in the 19th century.

March 11, 2024
Mendelssohn's performance of the Matthaeus Passion
The interior of the Marienkirche in Mühlhausen, where the cantata Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131, was first performed in 1707.

March 10, 2024
4th Sunday of Lent or Laetare
Remembrance plaque marking the spot where Bach's house stood in Weimar. That location is now... a parking lot.

March 3, 2024
3rd Sunday of Lent or Oculi
Hommage to Bach, a painting by French Fauvist painter Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). Dufy has made several paintings honouring classical composers.

February 25, 2024
2nd Sunday of Lent or Reminiscere
Hotel Jaegerhof in Weissenfels originally was the hunting lodge of the Dukes of Saxe-Weissenfels, and the location for the first performance of Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!, BWV 208 in 1713.

February 23, 2024
Birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
Coronation mantle of Augustus III which he wore on January 17 1734. National Museum in Warsaw.

February 19, 2024
Coronation of August III as King of Poland
Woodcarving print based on an aquarel by Eduard Bendemann (1850) of the monument for Bach in Leipzig, erected by Felix Mendelssohn in 1843. It may very well be the only example of a monument erected by a composer to honour another.

February 18, 2024
1st Sunday of Lent or Invocabit
The statue of Johann Sebastian Bach next to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. When Bach came to Leipzig to audition for the position as Thomaskantor, he could not have imagined that many centuries later a statue would be erected for him outside the church.

February 11, 2024
Quinquagesima or Estomihi
The interior of the Wehrkirche in Pomßen, where Bach performed BWV 157. The organ by Gottfried Richter (1640–1717) is the oldest organ in Sachsen.

February 6, 2024
Funeral service for Johann Christoph von Ponickau
Memorial plaque in the Burgplatz in Leipzig for Christian Friedrich Henrici (January 14, 1700 – May 10, 1764), writing under his pen name Picander, author of the libretti of many Bach cantatas, including the Matthaeus Passion and the Coffee Cantata.

January 21, 2024
Epiphany III
The Wedding Feast at Cana (1563) by Paolo Veronese (1528–1588). This magnificent large painting hangs in the Louvre opposite the Mona Lisa, so it's a pity that very many visitors do not pay it the attention it deserves. The wedding at Cana is the inspiration for the libretto for Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange?, BWV 155, and Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen, BWV 13.

January 14, 2024
Epiphany II
A contemporary portrait of Christian von Sachsen-Weissenfels, attributed to Martin Bernigeroth (1670-1733)

January 12, 2024
Homage for Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
A picture of the Thomanerchor in the Thomas Kirche, with the previous Thomaskantor, Gotthold Schwarz, appointed in 2016. On September 11, 2021, the new Thomaskantor, Andreas Reize, was appointed.

January 7, 2024
Epiphany I
The journey of the Three Magi, carrying gold, frankincense and myrrh, following the star in the right hand corner. Mosaic in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy, from the 6th century.

January 7, 2024
First Sunday after New Year
The adoration of the Magi by Peter Paul Rubens, the most famous painter from my hometown Antwerp. Painted in 1609 to decorate the negotiations hall for the Twelve Year's truce. Given to the Spanish ambassador in 1612, it came into possession of the Spanish king Philips IV. Rubens himself reworked it slightly in Spain in 1628-1629. It survived a fire in 1734 by being cut from its frame and thrown out the window, and now resides in the Prado in Madrid.

January 6, 2024
Epiphany
An impressive fireworks display over Leipzig welcomes the New Year. You can spot the Thomaskirche left of the skyscraper in the center. Happy New Year!

January 1, 2024
New Year's Day