Bach, from the abyss into the light / Beaune International Baroque and Romantic Opera Festival

In December 2021, Laurence Equilbey gave a series of concerts devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio. At the helm of her two ensembles, Insula Orchestra and Accentus, and accompanied by three soloists, she continues to explore this emblematic repertoire with a new programme built around the composer's great cantatas and motets.

The programme offers a spiritual journey, exploring the contrast between human despair and trust in the Most High. The cantata Aus der Tiefen ruf ich zu Dir (From the depths I cry out to you) is considered to be the first that Bach wrote in 1707, but it already heralds the ease with which his creator combined virtuoso writing, depth of thought and richness of instrumental colour.

The heart-rending text comes from Psalm 130, to which the extraordinary eight-part motet, Komm, Jesu, komm, responds. A few years later, in 1723, Bach was appointed to Leipzig, a city he would never leave until his death. Here he composed his most luminous cantata, Alles nur nach Gottes Willen (May it always be according to God's will), a continuation of the motet Jesu meine Freude (Jesus, my joy).
The cantata by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach's son, Heilig (Holy), is a spectacular, spatialised work, with solo viola, two choirs and two orchestras. It will bring this programme to a close in a celestial and grandiose atmosphere.