Winner of the 2019 Gramophone Choral Award, Vox Luminis, comes to Pomona College, sponsored by the Department of Music, for a concert of all-Bach music on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. The Bridges Hall of Music (150 E. Fourth St., Claremont) performance by this Belgian early music ensemble is free and open to the public.
The program, “The Bach Dynasty – 100 Years of Motets,” brings together works from one of music’s most illustrious families. Over the generations, the Bach family set the standard for German Lutheran church music: rich, warm and powerful, and the work fits its transcendent subject matter. The concert, culminating in J.S. Bach’s dramatic Jesu meine Freude, lets the splendid works of Johann’s predecessors (and cousins) ring out
Created in 2004 by Artistic Director Lionel Meunier, the award-winning 11-voice ensemble, joined for this tour with organ and viola da gamba continuo, has been hailed for their “profound, rewarding, and intoxicating” (Gramophone) performance, and The New York Times writes “The performances were excellent… the singers — four women, seven men — blended beautifully.” Vox Luminis performs over 60 concerts a year, appearing on stages in Belgium, across Europe and around the world. Since its inception, the ensemble has been defined by its unique sound, appealing as much through the personality of each timbre as it does through the color and the uniformity of the voices. The size and composition of the group depends on the repertoire, with the core of soloists, mostly from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, often joined by additional performers. The repertoire essentially spans from the 16th to the 18th century.
Vox Luminis has released 13 albums on the labels Alpha Classics, Ricercar, Ramée, and Musique en Wallonie. These recordings have enjoyed international critical acclaim, and have won numerous prizes including the prestigious Gramophone Recording of the Year in 2012 for the Musicalische Exequien by Heinrich Schütz, and the 2018 Choral Award from BBC Music Magazine for their recording of music of the Reformation, Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott, released on Ricercar Records. In 2018 Alpha Classics released two albums: a collaboration with the Franco-Canadian ensemble Masques in Abendmusiken by Dietrich Buxtehude, and a recording of Purcell’s King Arthur.
This year, Vox Luminis celebrates 15 years with a variety of collaborations and a busy touring schedule. The group will record and tour with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and will tour with the Café Zimmermann ensemble performing the Saint John Passion. Vox Luminis will see its first performances in Romania and Scotland. The ensemble will take part in the entire cycle of cantatas at the Leipzig Bachfest, it will open the Musica Antiqua Brugge with King Arthur, as well as open the Vezelay Festival and the Musikfest Bremen, and then close the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht. A recording of the cantatas by the Bach family (on the Ricercar label) will celebrate this anniversary with a bonus of several concerts in Paris and Brugge, culminating at the Boston Early Music Festival.
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The Bach Dynasty
Johann Bach...................................................... Unser Leben ist ein Schatten
Johann Bach...................................................... Sei nun wieder zufrieden
Johann Michael Bach..................................... Herr ich warte auf dein Heil
Johann Michael Bach..................................... Sei, lieber Tag, willkommen
Johann Michael Bach..................................... Nun treten wir ins neue Jahr
Johann Michael Bach..................................... Halt was du hast
Johann Christoph Bach................................. Der Mensch von Weibe geboren
Johann Christoph Bach................................. Lieber Herr Gott, wecke uns auf
Johann Ludwig Bach...................................... Das Blut Jesu Christi
Johann Ludwig Bach...................................... Das ist meine Freude
Johann Sebastian Bach.................................. Jesu meine Freude, BWV 227
All programs and artists subject to change.