Four hundred years ago, in an age when inescapable disease and death was all around, people did not shy
away from talking about it. They even sang songs about it. Lent, the period leading up to Easter, was a
moment when mortality was given particular attention, the time of year when the appalling details of the
death of Jesus were scrutinised.
But the music that was written on the subject of death was not gloomy or forbidding, but radiant and
harmonious.
The Welsh Camerata sings two perfect examples of this, by Buxtehude and JS Bach, composers
known to each other and made famous by the youthful Bach’s long trek to visit and learn from the aged
Buxtehude.
The choir sings Membra Jesu nostri, a group of cantatas by Buxtehude on the suffering of Jesus
on the cross.
Following that is a cantata by Bach, written just a couple of years after his Buxtehude
adventure. ‘God’s own time is the best time’ is typical of the Lutheran vision of earthly life as merely a
preparation for a much better one to come, ending the concert with an expression of joy.
Welsh Camerata choir and instrumentalists
Director: Andrew Wilson-Dickson
Church of the Resurrection
Grand Avenue
Cardiff CF5 4HX
Saturday 23 March 2024, 7.30pm
Tickets online http://www.welshcamerata.org/ or on the door: £14/£12 conc