Bach: Cantata No147; Suite for orchestra No3

Like Shakespeare, another of the world's great geniuses, Bach was not a notable innovator. Rather, he showed his genius through the manipulation of traditional procedures and nowhere is this more apparent than in his church music. It is infused with the experience of a family that had been employed as organists, choirmasters and composers for generations and one of the most splendid in all the dazzling array is the Magnificat featured here. The opening chorus is magnificently scored for five-part choir, flutes, oboes, trumpets, drums and strings. At the very heart of the work is the deeply felt duet for alto and tenor 'Et misericordia' and the trio 'Susceptit Israel'; in the latter, two sopranos and an alto weave a delicate melodic web around the oboe's serene intoning of the so-called tonus peregrinus to which the Magnificat was originally chanted. Perhaps even more famous than the Magnificat is the cantata Wachet auf, one of only a handful of Bach's vocal works to be performed regularly in the years just after his death. The programme also includes the mighty Nun danket alle Gott (Now Thank We All Our God) plus the less familiar Missa Brevis and another sacred cantata, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen and the celebrated Air from the third orchestral site. There are also organ solos performed by Stephen Cleobury and a selection of motets and chorales sung by the choir with organ accompaniment.