On behalf of the Oxford Bach Soloists, I would like to wish our friends and followers a very Happy New Year!
We enjoyed a sell-out performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on 24th December. It was the perfect way to start the Christmas season, and we are very much looking forward to our exciting plans for 2017.
Calming the Storm
Everything gets underway on Sunday 29 January with Calming the Storm featuring two of Bach’s cantatas composed especially for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. This is a rather special date as it only occurs when Easter is very late.
In both works part of the story tells of Jesus calming a massive storm on the Sea of Galilee. Bach’s depiction of this event ‘like a raging tide and like a foaming wave’ brings the event vividly to life.
The cantatas are performed alongside one of the first works from Bach’s time in Leipzig: Jesu, meine Freude, written in 1723 for the funeral of Johanna Maria Käsin, the wife of that city’s postmaster.
We shall be announcing details of our exciting plans for the rest of the forthcoming year soon which will include our monthly focus on Bach’s cantatas written for a specific day.
One exciting project is the OBS première of a new work as part of the Easter Oratorio concert with Colin Riley’s Roads Shining Like River Uphill After Rain – about which more anon!
Best wishes for 2017,
Tom Hammond Davies
Artistic Director
