C.P.E. Bach and the sentimental style: Musical tastes began to change as early as the 1730s, favoring the so-called Empfindsam (“sentimental”) style, which placed a premium on authentic (i.e. not stylized) feelings, naturalness, and simplicity. This becomes especially clear when we look at Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s oratorio passions.
There’s a lot to discover when you start exploring the origins of the famous parodies in the Christmas Oratorio. The second important “quarry” which the composer mined for the Christmas Oratorio was the cantata Herkules auf dem Scheidewege (Hercules at the Crossroads) – a “dramma per musica”.
Based on three fascinating cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, chief editor Dr. Uwe Wolf shows how musicologists and performers bring lost or incomplete masterpieces back to life through careful reconstructions.
Personal, anecdotal, informative, and full of conviction: we reveal our Bach highlights for the anniversary year!
Chief editor Uwe Wolf gives his program recommendation for a Christmas concert 300 years after Bach’s first cantata year in Leipzig.
After taking up his post in Leipzig in May 2023, J.S. Bach composed at least one cantata every week. Kay Johannsen gives recommendations that celebrate this extraordinary creative period in Bach’s career 300 years later.
The feast of Epiphany is one of the oldest church festivals and a popular day for concerts. Frank Höndgen gives his suggestion for a Bach concert programme for this day.
Renowned Bach expert Prof. Christoph Wolff explains why 1723 was a turning point in J.S. Bach’s creative and compositional career.
What do we actually know about the personality of Bach over beyond the idealization of the Cantor of St. Thomas and even deification? It is only possible to compile cautious assumptions about his personal manner with the aid of sparse surviving comments by himself or his contemporaries. Some of his secular cantatas depicting the social life of his time hint at humorous and light-hearted character traits.
When Carus-Verlag asked Daniel Ivo de Oliveira to realize the basso continuo part of Mozart’s Mass in c minor K. 427, as completed and edited by Frieder Bernius and Uwe Wolf, he was brought into contact with a style of music that was new to him. After listening to the piece several times he was fascinated once again by Mozart’s exquisite music…
(c) Sven Cichowicz