MAGNIFICAT

with the Kammerorchester Basel, René Jacobs conductor

20 December 2022

he true Advent music: Mary is pregnant and praises the Lord. Johann Sebastian Bach has cast her unspeakable joy into tones.
Mary visits her friend Elizabeth, who is also in joyful expectation (she will give birth to John the Baptist). So there they are, standing together and rejoicing. Suddenly all uncertainty about how the conception could have happened is gone. Now the jubilation bursts out of Mary: Magnificat anima mea Dominum - my soul praises the Lord. This is how it is written in the Gospel of Luke, and the word Magnificat became famous as a so-called incipit, named after the opening word of a line of text.

Many composers have set Mary's hymn-like canticle to music, some even several times: Monteverdi and Palestrina, Mozart and Mendelssohn, Bruckner and Tchaikovsky. But one of the most beautiful versions is by Bach. The music is almost 300 years old and touches us even into our fast-moving times.
It will probably touch us much more this time, because the baroque specialist René Jacobs, the grand master of early music, takes care of the airy, transparent, gripping sound.

Performers

SUNHAE IM Soprano

COLINE DUTILLEUL Mezzosoprano

ALBERTO MIGUELEZ ROUCO Altus

MAGNUS DIETRICH Tenor

YANNICK DEBUS Bass

ZÜRCHER SING-AKADEMIE

MICHAEL GLÄSER Chorus Master

KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL

RENÉ JACOBS Conductor

Programme

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: