Show: Current Past
Cantata: Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37
Organ: Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541
Soloist: William Neil
A Washington DC tradition described by the Washingtonian as a "hidden gem," the Noontime Cantata Series at Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC provides respite from the busy workday and the stress of city life. Each fifty minute concert consists of a cantata and an organ piece introduced by J. Reilly Lewis and performed by orchestra, chorus and soloists.
Johann Sebastian Bach Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
We end our 35th Season with the monumental Mass in B Minor, a work Bach returned to again and again during his life. Although it draws upon Lutheran and Catholic traditions the B Minor Mass holds deep significance for people of all religious and cultural origins. Bach scholar Christoph Wolff describes the B Minor Mass as “
a summary of his writing for voice, not only in its variety of styles, compositional devices, and range of sonorities, but also in its high level of technical polish ... Bach’s mighty setting preserved the musical and artistic creed of its creator for posterity.”
Pre-Concert Lecture:
2:00pm, Talking Bach is a series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholars one hour before performances at National Presbyterian Church. The lectures focus not only on the musical elements of the work that will be performed, but also on the historical context in which the music was created. Talks are designed to enhance the concertgoers' appreciation and enjoyment of the music they are about to hear. The series is open to all ticket holders.
Cantata: Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6
Organ: Toccata and Fugue in F Major, BWV 540
Soloist: Eric Plutz
A Washington DC tradition described by the Washingtonian as a "hidden gem," the Noontime Cantata Series at Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC provides respite from the busy workday and the stress of city life. Each fifty minute concert consists of a cantata and an organ piece introduced by J. Reilly Lewis and performed by orchestra, chorus and soloists.
Johann Sebastian Bach Motet: Der Gerechte kommt um
Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto VI, BWV 1051
Heinrich Schütz Musikalische Exequien, SWV 279
Johann Sebastian Bach Funeral Ode: Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198
Rich sonority, sublime harmony, and complex instrumentation characterize this program that includes a deeply-felt funeral ode written to honor a beloved queen, and Schütz’s Exequien, a tribute to a friend and patron and one of the major works of the German choral repertoire before Bach. Bach himself looks back to the past with his arrangement of a motet originally attributed to his colleague Kuhnau, and the mood of reflection is carried over in the most introspective and somberly beautiful of the Brandenburg concertos.
Pre-Concert Lecture:
2:00pm, Talking Bach is a series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholars one hour before performances at National Presbyterian Church. The lectures focus not only on the musical elements of the work that will be performed, but also on the historical context in which the music was created. Talks are designed to enhance the concertgoers' appreciation and enjoyment of the music they are about to hear. The series is open to all ticket holders.
Cantata: Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht, BWV 105
Organ: Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543
Soloist: Paul Skevington
A Washington DC tradition described by the Washingtonian as a "hidden gem," the Noontime Cantata Series at Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC provides respite from the busy workday and the stress of city life. Each fifty minute concert consists of a cantata and an organ piece introduced by J. Reilly Lewis and performed by orchestra, chorus and soloists.
In honor of the 35th Season and by popular demand music director and founder J. Reilly Lewis and National Presbyterian’s glorious Skinner organ star in an all-Bach program built around the “Great Eighteen,” BWV 651–658, begun in Bach’s youth in Weimar and revised in his final years in Leipzig. One of the most famous and diverse collection of organ pieces Bach ever wrote, these brilliant compositions represent a perfect fusion of styles and genres raised to new and unimagined artistic heights. Singers from the Consort chorus perform Bach’s exquisite harmonization’s of the various melodies upon which these keyboard masterpieces are based.
Pre-Concert Lecture:
2:00pm, Talking Bach is a series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholars one hour before performances at National Presbyterian Church. The lectures focus not only on the musical elements of the work that will be performed, but also on the historical context in which the music was created. Talks are designed to enhance the concertgoers' appreciation and enjoyment of the music they are about to hear. The series is open to all ticket holders.
Cantata: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62
Organ: Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch, BWV 769
Soloist: Todd Fickley
A Washington DC tradition described by the Washingtonian as a "hidden gem," the Noontime Cantata Series at Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC provides respite from the busy workday and the stress of city life. Each fifty minute concert consists of a cantata and an organ piece introduced by J. Reilly Lewis and performed by orchestra, chorus and soloists.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantata: Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36
Cantata: Selig ist der Mann (Dialogus), BWV 57
Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch, BWV 769
Cantata: Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesumgen, BWV 248
An all-Bach program contains cantatas composed for Advent and the Christmas season, including one of the six that make up the Christmas Oratorio. J. Reilly Lewis performs the Canonic Variations on Von Himmel hoch, one of Bach’s most famous compositions published towards the end of his life.
Pre-Concert Lecture:
2:00pm, Talking Bach is a series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholars one hour before performances at National Presbyterian Church. The lectures focus not only on the musical elements of the work that will be performed, but also on the historical context in which the music was created. Talks are designed to enhance the concertgoers' appreciation and enjoyment of the music they are about to hear. The series is open to all ticket holders.
Cantata: Wir danken dir, Gott, BWV 29
Organ: Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542
Soloist: Jeremy Filsell
A Washington DC tradition described by the Washingtonian as a "hidden gem," the Noontime Cantata Series at Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC provides respite from the busy workday and the stress of city life. Each fifty minute concert consists of a cantata and an organ piece introduced by J. Reilly Lewis and performed by orchestra, chorus and soloists.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Concerto II, BWV 1047
Cantata: Ich habe genug, BWV 82
Sinfonia from Cantata 49
Triple Concerto, BWV 1044
Cantata: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51
Bach famously wrote that music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul. Allow your soul an afternoon of delight with an all-Bach program featuring some of the master’s most virtuosic and challenging writing for solo singers and instrumentalists. Concertmaster Andrew Fouts and guest soprano Elizabeth Futral, who performs two of Bach’s most brilliant Cantatas for solo soprano, join other supurb performers in this showcase of musical treasures.
Pre-Concert Lecture:
2:00pm, Talking Bach is a series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholars one hour before performances at National Presbyterian Church. The lectures focus not only on the musical elements of the work that will be performed, but also on the historical context in which the music was created. Talks are designed to enhance the concertgoers' appreciation and enjoyment of the music they are about to hear. The series is open to all ticket holders.
Cantata: O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV 165
Organ: Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552
Soloist: J. Reilly Lewis
A Washington DC tradition described by the Washingtonian as a "hidden gem," the Noontime Cantata Series at Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC provides respite from the busy workday and the stress of city life. Each fifty minute concert consists of a cantata and an organ piece introduced by J. Reilly Lewis and performed by orchestra, chorus and soloists.
John Blow: God spake sometime in visions
William Boyce: The king shall rejoice
George Frideric Handel: My heart is inditing
Orlando Gibbons: Te Deum (The Second Service)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Election Cantata: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69
With the beginning of our 35th anniversary season coinciding with an electoral race, we take a look at music commissioned for state occasions. Handel’s anthem was written for the coronation of George II in 1727, when the Te Deum by Orlando Gibbons, who served kings of England over a century before, may also have been performed. Blow and Boyce wrote for James II and George III respectively, but it takes the genius of Bach to bestow grandeur fit for royalty on the inauguration of a town council.
Pre-Concert Lecture:
2:00pm, Talking Bach is a series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholars one hour before performances at National Presbyterian Church. The lectures focus not only on the musical elements of the work that will be performed, but also on the historical context in which the music was created. Talks are designed to enhance the concertgoers' appreciation and enjoyment of the music they are about to hear. The series is open to all ticket holders.