Music Worcester's THE COMPLETE BACH Continues with Emmanuel Music Performing Bach: Solo Cantatas

Boston’s Emmanuel Music, which has been performing cantatas by J.S. Bach every Sunday for the past 50 years, will perform three solo cantatas as part of Music Worcester’s THE COMPLETE BACH (TCB) on Saturday, February 21 at Assumption University’s Curtis Performance Hall.

In 2024, Music Worcester launched THE COMPLETE BACH, an initiative to present every known work by J.S. Bach. The project, which lasts 11 years – culminating in March 2036 on the 350th anniversary of his birth – is believed to be the first intentional festival to present all of Bach’s known works within a defined period of time. Music Worcester has formed an extensive partnership network as part of THE COMPLETE BACH, which includes Emmanuel Music.

Founded in 1970 by Craig Smith, Emmanuel Music has served as the ensemble-in-residence for Boston’s Emmanuel Church. Now in his fourteenth season as Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music, Ryan Turner (left) has established himself as a sterling conductor and innovative programmer. Passionate and assiduously fluent in the music of Bach, Mr. Turner has conducted the complete cycle of 200 sacred Bach cantatas, as well as the complete masterworks of Bach: St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, his own reconstruction of the St. Mark Passion, Mass in B minor and Christmas Oratorio, and the complete Orchestral Suites. 

“Emmanuel Music has been synonymous with the music of Bach for more than half a century,” proclaimed Chris Shepard, artistic director of THE COMPLETE BACH.  “Their performances are insightful and thrilling, performed by some of the most gifted interpreters of Bach’s music performing today. We have collaborated with dozens of singers and players from Emmanuel Music over the last twenty years, and every time has been a joy -- just as this concert will surely be!”

The three cantatas featured in this performance vary in instrumentation as much as they do purpose, and includes four vocal soloists. O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (BWV 60) was an enormous favorite among the fin de siecle intelligentsia in Vienna. The final chorale, perhaps the most extreme of any chorale setting, was the backbone of Berg’s Violin Concerto.  Der Friede sei mit dir (BWV 158), since it is quite brief and requires a small and unusual ensemble, raises the question as to whether it is in fact a complete piece.  Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (BWV 199) is one of the great Bach cantatas that is almost unique in its intensity and passion. The work was only known in fragments and was published that way in the old Bach Gesellschaft until it was discovered whole by the Danish scholar Matiennsen early in the twentieth century.  

Soprano Janet Ross is a core member of Emmanuel Music, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Upper Valley Baroque, and Cantata Singers. American mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore has been a member of Emmanuel Music’s famed weekly Bach cantata series since 1999 and enjoys frequent collaborations with such prestigious ensembles as Boston Early Music Festival, Handel & Haydn Society, The Bach Sinfonia, The Boston Camerata, and Aston Magna.

Tenor Jonas Budris is a versatile soloist and ensemble musician, engaging new and early music with equal passion. He has enjoyed performing, touring, and recording with such groups as the Handel and Haydn Society, Blue Heron, Boston Baroque, The Thirteen, and the Skylark Vocal Ensemble, and is a featured soloist in multiple GRAMMY-nominated recordings.  Baritone Will Prapestis performs frequently as a soloist and ensemble member of ensembles including Renaissance Men — of which he is a founding member — Boston Baroque, the Orpheus Singers, Cantata Singers, and Monadnock Music Festival. 

Music Worcester has brought internationally acclaimed musicians and ensembles to Central Massachusetts since its founding in 1858. Today, the organization presents leading orchestras, soloists, and ensembles spanning classical, jazz, folk, global traditions, and dance, engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

In 2024, Music Worcester launched THE COMPLETE BACH, an 11-year project to present live performances of all J.S. Bach’s known works. Music Worcester’s education and outreach initiatives include in-school workshops and masterclasses, and the availability of free and reduced-price tickets. Choral director and educator Everett McCorvey follows pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and violinist Vijay Gupta, who have served as the Artist-in-Residence, a program that establishes deep community relationships with an individual artist.