The Glory of Bach at Christmas

Saturday 22 December sees the culmination of Bath Recitals’ 2018 Baroque Season with a glorious celebration of the magical world of JS Bach and those who inspired his wonderful music…

268 years have passed since Johann Sebastian Bach died in Liepzig. Yet his music continues to thrive today – particularly with his festive Christmas Oratorio and his poignant Easter Passions.

From Cantatas to Concertos, Oratorios to Organ works, Preludes to Fugues, the music of Bach represents the final flowering of the Baroque in northern Europe.

Classic FM refers to him as ‘music’s most sublime creative genius’, his music is featured more often than that of any other composer in The Telegraph’s list of the 168 best classical music recordings, and according to conductor and baroque musicologist Sir John Eliot Gardiner he is ‘arguably the greatest of all composers’.

Musica Poetica make a welcome return to Bath for this concert featuring the music of JS Bach in the context of German Baroque Christmas. Composers from Biber to Buxtehude and from Schütz to Scheidt all wrote glorious music for Christmas which paved the way for Bach’s genius who was to become a towering figure of the baroque age and the undoubted master of ‘The German Baroque’.