Portsmouth Baroque Choir is, once again, shining a performative light on niche Baroque repertoire: cantatas by Buxtehude and Kuhnau and an arrangement of Kuhnau by Bach. Performances of their works side by side are infrequent and, indeed, but for the efforts of collectors and musicologists, the chances of any of this music surviving down to our age were slim. While Bach is a household name, Kuhnau and Buxtehude are not although both were important for Bach's success. Kuhnau is better-known as a composer of pictorial pieces for keyboard. Less well-known are his sacred cantatas and only a few have survived. We will be performing three: his masterpiece Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern for Epiphany, Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden and Gott, sei mir gnädig (Psalm 51). All three display a mixture of pietist moderation and operatic flare that would be adopted by Handel as well as by Bach. And for decades Kuhnau had directed the St Thomas choir, the Thomanerchor founded in 1212, although it was not in particularly good shape when Bach took over. But that is another story.
Going back a little further, Bach famously walked 260 miles to Lübeck to hear the greatest musician of the day, Dietrich Buxtehude, soaking up not only his organ playing but also the weekly concerts (Abendmusik) organised by Buxtehude. His sacred vocal music was forgotten until the early twentieth century but has gathered interest. Our concert begins with his Advent cantata Ihr lieben Christen, freut euch nun and the second half includes Jesu, meine Freude that Bach must surely have heard while in Lūbeck. The concert ends joyfully with a Magnificat setting attributed to Buxtehude.
To reinforce the Bach connection, Der Gerechte kömmt um, attributed to Bach, is a vernacular re-working the motet Tristis est anima mea by Kuhnau.
The choir will be joined by members of the Consort of Twelve. Additional instrumental colour and all vocal solos will be drawn from the Choir.
