Bach: Cantatas BWV 4.2, 66.3, 37, 104 | Ton Koopman & Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir

The Bachfest Leipzig is marking a special anniversary in 2023: in the year 1723, so exactly 300 years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) took up his post as cantor of St. Thomas Church in the Saxon city. His job involved planning the music for worship in several churches on around 60 days of the year, as well as teaching pupils at the St. Thomas School. To fulfil this mammoth task, Bach composed cantatas at a rate of almost one a week throughout his first year in office alone. The compositions, which later became known as Bach’s first cantata cycle in Leipzig, astonished people at the time for their reworking of traditional musical forms and the further creative development of the genre – in the space of just one year. Despite their technical challenges these cantatas, which were written around 1723/24, are among the Baroque composer’s most popular and frequently performed works. Bach expert and global early music star Ton Koopman has chosen four favorites from Bach’s first cantata cycle in Leipz