CPE Bach: Du Göttlicher A Passion Cantata

CPE Bach is known today mainly for his symphonies, concertos and keyboard works, but he was also a prolific composer of choral music. His final twenty years in particular were distinguished by a series of elevating oratorios on sacred subjects that are among the most important Protestant vocal works of the second half of the 18th century, and an important link between the oratorios of Handel and Haydn. The Passion cantata Du Göttlicher – also known as Die letzten Leiden des Erlösers, and heard here in a rare performance – is one of the best and most individual of them, a dramatic and expressive sharing of Christ’s last sufferings in which Bach’s original and characterful genius shines out in every bar.

“…we were treated to a gutsy, full-bodied performance … simply delightful, wonderful playing” York Press