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BACH'S EASTER CANTATAS

Name: BACH'S EASTER CANTATAS
Start: 2023-04-04T20:00:00+00:00
End: 2023-04-04T22:00:00+00:00
Location: Nyborg Church

Author Behruz Jahangiri

Published on: December 19, 2022

WELCOME, KING OF HEAVEN!

Music for Palm Sunday

Concerto Copenhagen celebrates Easter with a team of young singers who take us on a musical journey from melancholic dance rhythms and absolution to festive welcome music.

Easter is usually associated with Passion music, which describes the suffering and death of Jesus. But in this concert, we're going to take a closer look at the events that usher in Easter; Lent and the arrival of Je-su in Jerusalem - namely Palm Sunday.

We go back to the spring of 1714 in Weimar, where the barely 30-year-old Johan Sebastian Bach has been promoted to Kapellmeister and is about to show the count, the court and the congregation his skills as a composer with the cantatas "Himmelskönig sei willkommen" and "Widerstehe doch der Sünde".

In "Widerstehe doch der Sünde", both musicians and audience must resist the temptations of sin in life here on earth. The music gives us a musical image of what is dangerous, sin, what we must fight against to receive eternity in heaven. But it also shows how tempting and easy it would be to surrender to something so attractive. "It's not just ugly, but also incredibly beautiful at the same time - in a sensual and almost erotic way," Lars Ulrik Mortensen describes the music.

In "Himmelskönig sei willkommen" we meet Jesus on his way into Jerusalem riding a donkey. He is met by a crowd of people who welcome him with palm leaves and song. Like Palm Sunday, the cantata is festive and cheerful, where the suffering and death of Maundy Thursday and Long Friday can only be heard in the distance. An apt image of Jesus' humble and yet dignified entry into Jerusalem.

The concert begins with Telemann's Overture Suite in A minor. In the spring of 1714, Telemann had just become godfather to J.S Bach's newborn SUN, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Despite the French-style dancing rhythms of the Overture Suite, it is as if the music never really becomes cheerful, but remains wistful - a reminder of what lies ahead on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and therefore a fitting introduction not only to this concert, but also to Easter.

Concerto Copenhagen, under the direction of Lars Ulrik Mortensen, is looking forward to playing

Easter with a team of talented young singers: soprano Anna Orlowicz Miilmann, countertenor Steffen Jespersen, tenor Mathias Monrad Møller and bass Joakim Larsson.