Bach: Jauchzet, frohlocket!

In this Advent concert, we travel back to Leipzig in December 1725, during Johann Sebastian Bach’s third liturgical year as Thomaskantor. For the Christmas season, he composed cantatas to texts by the former Darmstadt court poet Georg Christian Lehms. »Unser Mund sei voll Lachens« celebrates the birth of Jesus with jubilant splendour, while »Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt« welcomes the Christ child with gentle sounds and contemplative joy, not least in a remarkable soprano aria with solo flute. Bach creates a rich and finely nuanced range of moods for Christmas, qualities that would later reappear in his Christmas Oratorio. The Gaechinger Cantorey rounds off this concert of heavenly sounds with the festive opening »Jauchzet, frohlocket« and the joyful shepherds’ adoration from Part III of the Oratorio.