Hamburg 1786
The father’s Credo and the son’s Magnificat
C.P.E. Bach – J.S. Bach
Soloists
Det Norske Solistkor
Finnish Baroque Orchestra
Nils Schweckendiek, conductor
PROGRAMME (in Finnish and Swedish)
Attention! Due to this exceptional time and the changes it brings, the concert will begin one hour earlier, meaning at 3 pm.
Nils Schweckendiek replaces Grete Pedersen due to illness.
FiBO will bring prominent international choirs to perform with them from 2022 to 2025. The Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation will support the series from 2023 to 2025. The “Top European Choirs” series will begin with the Norwegian Det Norske Solistkor, one of Europe’s leading chamber choirs. In total, there will be an ensemble of more than 50 singers and instrumentalists on the Helsinki Music Centre’s main stage.
The concert programme is a partial copy of a charity concert organised by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg in April 1786. C.P.E. Bach, the music director of the five main churches in Hamburg, among other things, conducted his own compositions in addition to the works of his father, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Georg Friedrich Händel.
It is likely that J.S. Bach’s “Credo" (Symbolum Nicenum), considered the crown jewel of his “Mass in B minor", was premiered in this aforementioned concert in Hamburg in 1786. Since the “Credo" begins without a choral prelude, C.P.E. Bach composed a slow and restrained, albeit expressive, instrumental work for strings for his father’s work.
The counterpart of J.S. Bach’s “Credo" was C.P.E. Bach’s “Magnificat" for four soloists, choir and orchestra, which was his first major choral work. The nine-part “Magnificat" was completed in Berlin in 1749 and revised around 1779. The solemn work is a descendant of J.S. Bach’s “Mass in B minor "but still retains its own originality: it is full of the spirit of “Sturm und Drang" (Storm and Stress) era with its expressive and virtuoso arias.
The concert is organized in collaboration with Encanto Music / Helsinki Early Music Festival.
Duration: 1 h 15 min (no intermission)