Next day already

It's next day, Sunday, and we've already attended another Evangelical Lutheran service, this time at Thomaskircke's fraternal church, St Nicholas, before our morning coffee. Nikolaikircke shares the choir and orchestra with Thomaskircke and the Bach cantata was a repeat, presumably given it's the 22nd Sunday after Trinity and I assume with the same orchestral performers and singers. We could see them this time, up front before the altar. The choir walked in before the service started and positioned themselves in the choir area before the altar. At Thomaskircke, all performers were in the organ loft behind. Today, I counted ~36 of which ~8 young girls (to ~8yo?) int he choir. Otherwise the service was a bit longer (~80mins) with another imposing Mendelssohn organ piece to open, then various choral works accompanied or not, one other organ piece, congregational singalongs, a sermon referencing Bach and some religious rites, variously works by Reger and Mendelssohn and JC Bach and that repeated JS Bach cantata (BWV89) and a final movement from a Bach sonata (mvt.3, BWV526). We were positioned to see the musicians but not the singers and I think it affected their sound to our ears. Nonetheless, this was again instructive and quite beautiful (5-sting bass; not gut). Interesting that accompaniment could change so markedly, with all orchestra playing only for the cantata choral passage. Otherwise variously bass, one cello, bassoon and always harpsichord and baroque organ. The full orchestra was 4xvln1; 3xvln2; 2xclo;1xbs; 1xhorn; 2xoboe; 1xbassoon; 1xharpsichord; 1xbaroque organ. Again, the singalongs were interesting if only la-la's from me; no German lyrics. With any luck we can do all this over again next weekend, or at least one. As I joked with Megan, even an atheist would comfortably attend these services regularly. Oh, and the church itself was so different from the sedate decoration of Thomaskirchke, This was florid, all Egyptian-like columns with palm leaf (?) capitals and a profusion of growth spreading out over the ceiling. Never seen the likes before.

The Thomanerchor Leipzig, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Johannes Lang (Thomasorganist), Hanna Zumsande (soprano), Jolia Boehne (alto), Julian Dominique (bass) and Cornelia Osterwald (harpsichord, organ continuo) performed under Andreas Reize (Thomaskantor) at Nikolaikircke Leipzig.

It rains and pours

It never rains but it pours, they say, so next day we are in Leipzig and we hear commotion and chase the source and it's a noisy stream of people with placards and chants and an opposing stream moving parallel but kept separate by police and much commotion and emotion and just a little joviality I reckon, not least for the woman I was chatting with who was explaining that this has become an annual event, first run by a group marching against masks and vaccinations at the start of Covid a few years back and now become annual with the local lefties out in response. We were somewhat amused but the cops didn't look it and I wouldn't like it to develop further but at least it's good to see a community with political concerns that will bring people out some time. Not that this was a sensible cause, but. So another little unexpected vision of this country. But this is Leipzig and people have told us it's a young city (metro population 1m [city 600K; nicknamed "Hypezig" or "The better Berlin"), ex-East Germany with a centre -eft government (Social Democrats [SPD] with Greens and Left parties (?)) but what it's really known to us for is JS Bach (but also Mendelssohn, JC&CPE Bachs, R&S Schumanns, Fabricius, Leibniz, Mayer, Wagner, Reineke, Beckman...) and we got in a first concert very soon after arrival. It was at famed Thomaskircke which is just 5 minutes walk from our stay. It was a Saturday afternoon, the church was teaming, the entrance charge was €2, this was a Lutheran service but mostly just a sermon and no applause, the performers were no less than the Thomanerchor and Gewandhausorchester and organist and soprano, alto, bass and conductor, it was called a Motette and included a grand organ piece by Mendelssohn, song by Kaminski, JC Bach, Reger, two songs the audience could sing along with (Gemeinderlieden "Zich an di Macht, de Am des Herrn" and "Dona nobis pacem") and a final JS Bach cantata (Wasa sol ich aus machen, Ephraim). The opening Mendelssohn was a big, noisy, powerful organ outing. Then a choral numbers with organ continuo accompaniment. The choir, mostly boys but with a sprinkling of girls these days, came down to stand in the aisles, perhaps to assist with the more complex Dona nobis pacem. The final JC Bach cantata was was bass aria, alto recitative and aria, soprano recitative and aria and the final choral summary all accompanied by a chamber group of historical instruments with continuo. Suffice to say the singing and playing was consistently spectacular and the choir had a different quality of voice, at least amongst the highly pitched boy voices. Just a stunner and we have another due in a hour or so as I write this. Must go...

Performing a Bach cantata and more at a Lutheran Service at Thomaskirchke were Johannes Lang (organ, continuo), Hanna Zumsande (soprano), Jolia Boehne (alto), Julian Dominique (bass), Thomanerchor Liepzig, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig comprising Henrick Hoschild (concertmaster, violin), Jan Wessely (horn), Susanna Wettemass and Thomas Hipper (oboe), David Petersen (bassoon), Nicolas Defranoux (cello), Henning Rasche (double bass) and Cornelia Osterwald (harpsichord) under Thomaskantor Andreas Reize (conductor).