Bach Cantatas 149 and 50
Elizabeth Lepock, soprano
Daniel Cabena, alto
Bud Roach, tenor
Rich Hrytzak, bass
The Choir and Orchestra of Spiritus Ensemble
Kenneth Hull, conductor
Admission by donation
All performances take place at:
St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church
23 Water Street North, Kitchener
Program notes:
By the end of last season, Spiritus Ensemble had performed 44 of Bach’s church cantatas. This season will add three more to that total, including two cantatas that Bach composed for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, as well as another darker, more innovative cantata from Bach’s first year in Leipzig.
The cantatas for Michaelmas are both festive and large-scale, calling for triple brass, timpani, triple oboes, and, in one movement, double choir. Cantata 149, Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg (One sings with joy about victory), is the third of three cantatas that Bach wrote for St. Michael’s Day. The topic of the libretto aligns with the prescribed readings for the day from the Book of Revelation (7:7-12), depicting Michael fighting the dragon.
Cantata 50, Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft (Now is [come] salvation and strength) is a choral movement for two four-part choirs long attributed to Bach and assumed to be part of a lost cantata. The text and scoring point towards its being written for a Michaelmas celebration.