BACH: Three Cantatas

Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich BWV 150

Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit “Actus Tragicus” BWV 106

Himmelskönig, sei wilkommen BWV 182

Musical Director: Rudyard Cook

New College Chapel

16^t May 2025, 8:30pm

Tickets available from Ticketsource https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/

Our first cantata, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (For Thee, O Lord, I Long) is often thought to be one of Bach’s earliest church cantatas (if not the earliest), possibly even being written as early as 1707 in Arnstadt. While the reason for the work’s composition remains unclear, the text would suggest that the cantata was penitential in theme. It is fairly unique both in the prominence of the chorus, and in its diverse and brief sections, making this cantata more in the style of Bach’s teacher Buxtehude than of his own more mature work. 

Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God’s time is the very best time), commonly known by the name ‘Actus Tragicus’ is another of Bach’s earlier cantatas, and one of his best known. While again the date is somewhat elusive, research has indicated that it was probably composed for the funeral of a mayor in Mühlhausen in September 1708. Curiously, the cantata is without violins – the recorders and violas taking centre stage eliciting a more sombre and mournful palette. After the opening sinfonia the cantata is through composed, although there are four clearly defined sections with text selected from both the Old and New testaments, as well as some funeral hymns written into the music.

Finally, Himmelskönig, sei wilkommen (King of Heaven, welcome) is a more joyous than the previous two, composed in Weimar for Palm Sunday, and first performed on the 25^th of March 1714 which also happened to be the feast of the Annunciation. This was one of Bach’s first Weimar cantatas, after being promoted to Konzertmeister only a few weeks prior. In 8 sections, it opens with a lively sonata in the style of a French overture, as well as having a brief recitative from the bass as the “voice of Christ” and a closing choral in the style of Pachelbel as a sort of ‘chorale fantasia’ on the cantus firmus.

JOHANN PEPUSCH: VENUS AND ADONIS

Libretto: Colley Cibber
Music: Johann Christoph Pepusch

In a new edition by Robert Rawson

Musical Director: Rudyard Cook
Producer: Michael Burden

New College Chapel
7 & 8 February 2025
8.30pm

Tickets available from Ticketsource 

Cast
Venus – Matilda Bates
Adonis – Sam Chichester-Clark
Mars – Rhys Williams

The Berlin-born Johann Christoph Pepusch spent much of his working life in in England arriving in 1704. He was an active musician, and is recorded as a violist, a theatre director, music theoretician, teacher, and organist. In 1726, he founded The Academy of Vocal Music with others; in around 1730–1, it was renamed The Academy of Ancient Music. He also founded the Madrigal Society, and in 1713 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Music by the University of Oxford. He is best known today for his arrangement of the music for the 1728 Beggar’s Opera.

In his second decade in London, Pepusch wrote for Drury Lane a number of masques, small entertainments which included a setting of Barton Booth’s Death of Dido, staged by New Chamber in 2023. In 1715, he set Colley Cibber’s libretto Venus and Adonis, a take on the myth in which Venus, with whom Mars is already captivated, falls for Adonis (he is only interested in hunting). In a jealous rage, Mars arranges for Adonis’s death by boar during the hunt. In setting the text, Pepusch set the role of Adonis for his wife, Margarita de L’Epine en travesty.

Scenes from a Life
HENRY PURCELL

Conductor: Luke Mitchell
Director: Michael Burden

New College Ante-Chapel
28 & 29 February 2024
8.30pm

Tickets from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on?q=New%20chamber%20opera

Matilda Bates (Saxon Sorceress)
Dara Collins (Saxon 2)
Jessie Edgar (Venus, Honour)
Alaw Grug Evans (Cupid, 2^nd Syren)
Sebastian Evans (Sylvan 1)
Austin Haynes (The Cold Genius)
Francesca German (Woden’s Hall Saxon, Nymph 3)
Ben Gilchrist (King Arthur, Ecole, Berger, Pan, Man 4)
Ischia Gooda (Philidel, Nereid, 1^st Syren)
Jemima Kinley (Nymph 1)
Raphaël Maurin (Saxon 1, Sylvan 3, Man 3)
Matt Pope (Saxon 3, Sylvan 2, Comus)
Jess Norton Raybould (Nymph 2, Man 2)

King Arthur is Henry Purcell’s most complicated ‘dramatick opera’ and contains some of his most recognisable music. The text is by John Dryden, and the plot is based on the battle between the Britons and the Saxons; characters include King Arthur, Merlin, Cupid, and Venus, with the action centering on the recovery by Arthur of his fiancé Princess Emmeline from the clutches of his enemy, the Saxon King Oswald. The show is what Judith Milhous calls a ‘multi-media spectacular.’ In our version, the concentration is on the musical interludes, and the score includes the best-known music: the ‘Frost Scene’ sung by the Cold Genius, the hymn ‘Fairest Isle’ performed by Venus, and ‘Harvest Home’, the rollicking drinking song sung by peasants.