J. S. Bach’s Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Trinity

Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein BWV 2
(Oh God, Look down from Heaven)

Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes BWV 76
(The Heavens are telling the glory of God)

Motet: “Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf” BWV 226
(The Spirit helps us in our weakness)

Tickets £10 with a free programme

Two of J. S. Bach’s great Cantatas are pitted against each other: one proclaiming a celebratory view of the world alongside the other, a more shocked view from the heavens in this spectacular concert with orchestra, choir and soloists in one ofOxford’s most atmospheric spaces – the Chapel of New College.

Written a year apart from each other in 1723 and 1724, both cantatas were written when Bach was Kantor at St Thomas’s, Leipzig where his demanding schedule required him to write a new cantata every week. Audiences today cannot fail to be carried along by the music’s energy and dynamic forward momentum – just as the congregations of the 1720’s must have sat up in their pews when they heard this new world of music.

Alongside these cantatas the Oxford Back Soloists will perform the motet Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf (The Spirit helps us in our weakness), one of Bach’s great double-choir motets.