'Not only Bach' / Polish Radio Choir / Maria Piotrowska-Bogalecka - NOSPR

Although outstanding individuals always walk their own paths, no genius moves in a vacuum. This is particularly true about one as exceptional as Johann Sebastian Bach, whose family was deeply rooted in music. Johann Christoph (1642–1703) was Johann Sebastian’s father’s cousin, deeply respected as a composer and an organist by his contemporaries. His brother, Johann Michael (1648–1694), an organist and a town official in the Thuringian town of Gehren, became the great Leipzig cantor’s father-in-law. As for J.S. Bach’s cousin, Johann Ludwig (1677–1731), he was predominantly active in Meiningen, where he held the posts of cantor and capellmeister. In an exploration of Bach’s predecessors, one cannot forget about Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672): the composer who masterfully introduced elements of the Italian style to German musical culture and created the first vocal-instrumental concertos. Thus, the repertoire is bound with a telling framework, bringing together two most important creators in the history of the German cantata: Schütz, to whom it owes its basic shape, and Bach (born exactly a hundred years later), in whose works it found it most perfect reflection.

[Agnieszka Nowok-Zych, translated by Mikołaj Witkowski]

Duration of the concert: approx. 60 minutes