Gardiner and Bach's Cantatas

Synopsis

Today we celebrate hopeful beginnings — and happy endings.

In Leipzig, on New Year’s Day 1724, Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of “Singet dem Herrn ein Neues Lied“ (or “Sing to the Lord a New Song,” in English) — a work we now know as his Cantata 190.

About 200 of Bach’s church cantatas have survived. In 2000, British conductor John Eliot Gardiner decided to perform and record of all of them in the space of one liturgical year in historical churches in Europe and America. Starting on Christmas Day 1999, in Weimar, Germany, Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists set out to do just that.

It was an ambitious undertaking, and Gardiner said, “Just as in planning to scale a mountain or cross an ocean, you can make meticulous provision, calculate your route and get all the equipment in order, in the end you have to deal with whatever the elements — both human and physical – throw at you at any given moment.”

Gardiner’s Bach Cantata pilgrimage came to its triumphant conclusion on New Year’s Eve in 2000 at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City, with a performance of Cantata 190.

Music Played in Today's Program

J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Cantata No. 190; Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, cond. SDG 137

On This Day

Births

• 1866 - Russian composer Vassili Sergeievitch Kalinnikov (Gregorian date: Jan. 13);

• 1923 - Jazz vibraphone virtuoso, Milt Jackson, in Detroit; He was a member of the famous Modern Jazz Quartet;

Deaths

• 1782 - German composer Johann Christian Bach, in London, age 47; He was the youngest surviving son of J.S. Bach;

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 190 ("Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied") performed (incomplete) on New Year's Day as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24);

• 1725 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 41 ("Jesu, nun sei grepreiset") performed on New Year's Day as part of Bach's second annual Sacred Cantata cycle (1724/25);

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 16 ("Herr Gott, dich loben wir") performed on New Year's Day as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27);

• 1729 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 171 ("Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm") probably performed in Leipzig on News Year's Day as part of Bach's fourth annual Sacred Cantata cycle (to texts by Christian Friedrich Henrici, a.k.a. "Picander") during 1728/29;

• 1735 - Bach: Part 4 ("Fallt mit Danken, fallt mit Loben") of the 6-part "Christmas Oratorio," S. 248, in Leipzig;

• 1848 - Moniuszko: opera “Halka” (1st version in 2 acts in a concert version), in Vilnius;

• 1858 - Moniuszko: opera “Halka” (2nd version in 4 acts), in Warsaw at the Weilki Theater;

• 1873 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera "The Maid of Pskov," in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Jan. 13);

• 1879 - Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77, by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, with soloist Joseph Joachim and the composer conducting;

• 1894 - Dvorák: String Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96 and String Quintet in Eb, Op. 97 (both nicknamed the "American"), in Boston, by the Kneisel Quartet (and violist M Zach in the Quintet);

• 1942 - Chavez: Piano Concerto, in New York City, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Dimtri Mitropoulos, with soloist Eugene List;

• 1953 - Bloch: "Suite Herbaïque" in Chicago;

• 1954 - Walter Piston: “Fantasy” for English horn and orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting;

Others

• 1585 - Composer Giovanni Gabrieli becomes the second organist at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice; His uncle, the composer Andrea Gabrieli, is the first organist;

• 1791 - Haydn arrives in England for a series of concerts at the invitation of orchestral conductor and impresario Johann Salomon;

• 1801 - Eight members of the U.S. Marine band perform the first official music at the unfinished Executive Mansion (the "White House") at a New Year's Day reception hosted by President and Mrs. John Adams;

• 1908 - Gustav Mahler makes his conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, leading a performance of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde."