JS Bach's Magnificat - Bristol Choral Society

Newly arrived in Leipzig as the Thomaskirche’s new Kantor, JS Bach was out to cut a dash, and with his exuberant setting of the Magnificat gave the good citizens a Christmas present they’d never forget. We end our season on an irrepressibly upbeat note as we perform the work in its better-known D major respray, a feast of trumpets-and- drums jubilation leavened with dazzling word painting and a coup de theâtre when, at the words ‘As it was in the Beginning’, the music of the opening returns to bring things exhilaratingly full circle. Leipzig stands godfather to the rest of the programme too as the ebullient cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen issues its virtuosic challenge to soprano and trumpet; and we pair two differently sublime double-choir motets: the poignantly yearning Komm Jesu, komm and the vibrant Singet dem Herrn, a tour de force that provoked a delighted Mozart to exclaim ‘Now here is something we can learn from’.