ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE
*Mit Fried und Freud*
Dietrich BUXTEHUDE (1637-1707):
Cantate BuxWV 76 ‘Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin’
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750):
Cantate BWV 125 ‘Mit Fried und Freud’
Cantate BWV 46 ‘Schauet doch und sehet’
Missa brevis BWV 236
Dorothee Mields _soprano_
Damien Guillon _countertenor_
Thomas Hobbs _tenor_
Peter Kooij _bass_
Collegium Vocale Gent
Philippe Herreweghe
*Mit Fried und Freud*
It’s no secret that the poetry and musical preferences of the great church reformer Martin Luther run as a common thread through the works of both Johann Sebastian Bach and his mentor from Lübeck, Dietrich Buxtehude. Luther’s moving chorale text Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin was the basis of Buxtehude’s masterful Klaglied from 1671, a piece of funeral music featuring overwhelming symbolism of death, which in turn became the model for Bach’s cantata of the same name from 1725. For Luther, however, the vernacular did not enjoy exclusive rights. The Latin Kyrie-Gloria Masses that Bach wrote after 1737 in Leipzig are the festive proof!