Bach Vespers

A great religious and cultural treasure of New York City is the Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church at 65th Street and Central Park West, in which Bach cantatas and other works from the eighteenth century German church are performed in their original liturgical setting. The Bach cantatas are like nothing else, expressing a simple, pure, and profound devotion, and the singers and instrumentalists are top notch. You are transported into the religious atmosphere of Bach’s time. The season runs from around November to April each year, with the service starting at 5 p.m. Sundays, and today is the final one of the season.

The last Bach Vespers I attended was on April 13, where, in a special treat, two cantatas were performed, Bach’s Cantata 175, “He calls his sheep by name,” and a cantata by Bach’s teacher, Dieterich Buxtehude, which begins and ends with this chorus, from Colossians 3:17:

Alles, was ihr tut
Mit Worten oder mid Werken,
Everything that you do,
by word or by deed,

das tut alles im Namen Jesu,
do it in the name of Jesus

Und danker Gott
Und dem Vater durch ihn.
and thank God the Father
through him.

- end of initial entry -

Irv P. writes:

Thank you for your suggestion. My wife and I drove into the city and made it before 5PM. It was a beautiful service. Entertaining and spiritual. We loved it and were uplifted by the purity of the whole experience. Thank you again. We will now look forward to these weekends next year…GOD willing.

LA replies:

Oh that’s great, I’m so glad someone attended as a result of my note, especially as I posted it only 2 1/2 hours before the service, as a last minute thought. I was there, too. I’m sorry I didn’t think of saying something about the Bach Vespers sooner. I’ve attended them from time to time for a couple of years but from now on I’m going to go there regularly.

The service today was a complete, unified experience. I’ll try to write more about it later.

William A. sends this notice from the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church:

“Bach Vespers is a ministry of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, a Reconciling in Christ Congregation, welcoming all persons regardless of sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin, gender, class or other possible exclusionary distinction.”

LA replies:

Yes, I know. That notice is very off-putting and also ridiculous—as though there are churches in New York that exclude people because of their sex or their race! The real point is the sexual orientation. The rest is just filler to justify the sexual orientation notice. But in the services I’ve attended, and in the atmosphere of the church, there’s nothing about that. It’s very traditional. The homily is not about politics. Everything is about the traditional liturgy and music and it is quite uplifting.

Adela G. writes:

I was lucky enough to perform excerpts from both Bach and Buxtehude cantatas when I sang in a church choir. Bach’s music is simply inhuman in its flawlessness, while Buxtehude is far less demanding to both listener and performer. Buxtehude is to Bach as John Field is to Chopin, I think.

Coincidentally, I just found a superb rendition on YouTube of my favorite movement of all the Brandenburg Concerti, Part I of Number 6. It’s fully as vigorous and rigorous as Bach requires, and lacks the awful blandness of so many modern interpretations.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 27, 2008 02:38 PM | Send