Bach Motets Solomon's Knot

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750):
• 1 Bach: Komm, Jesu, komm BWV 229: I. Komm, Jesu, komm 06:49
• 2 Bach: Komm, Jesu, komm BWV 229: II. Drum schließ ich mich in deine Hände 01:21
• Johann Christoph Bach (1642 - 1703):
• 3 Bach: Lieber Herr Gott, wecke uns auf 04:26
• Johann Sebastian Bach:
• 4 Bach: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf BWV 226: I. Der Geist hilft 03:21
• 5 Bach: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf BWV 226: II. Der aber die Herzen forschet 02:32
• 6 Bach: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf BWV 226: III. Du heilige Brunst 01:43
• Johann Christoph Bach:
• 7 Bach: Der Gerechte, ob er gleich zu zeitlich stirbt 04:29
• Johann Sebastian Bach:
• 8 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: I. Jesu, meine Freude 01:03
• 9 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: II. Es ist nun nichts Verdammliches 02:39
• 10 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: III. Unter deinem Schirmen 01:03
• 11 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: IV. Denn das Gesetz 00:53
• 12 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: V. Trotz dem alten Drachen 02:21
• 13 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: VI. Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich 02:53
• 14 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: VII. Weg mit allen Schätzen 01:00
• 15 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: VIII. So aber Christus in euch ist 01:51
• 16 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: IX. Gute Nacht, o Wesen 03:54
• 17 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: X. So nun der Geist … in euch wohnet 01:24
• 18 Bach: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227: XI. Weicht, ihr Trauergeister 01:09
• 19 Bach: Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden BWV 230 06:19
• Johann Christoph Bach:
• 20 Bach: Fürchte dich nicht 04:36
• Johann Sebastian Bach:
• 21 Bach: Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir BWV 228 08:39
• Johann Christoph Bach:
• 22 Bach: Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener in Friede fahren 05:14
• 23 Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV 225: I. Singet dem Herrn 04:40
• 24 Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV 225: II. Wie sich ein Vat'r erbarmet 08:58
• 25 Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV 225: III. Lobet den Herrn in seinen Taten 03:30
• 26 Bach: Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn BWV 1164 04:33
• Total Runtime 01:31:20

Info for Bach Motets

This recording features the complete motets by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), set in the context of music from the previous generation of his family which inspired him. In his final decade, JS Bach researched and performed motets by his father’s cousin, Johann Christoph (1642-1703), whom he greatly admired. Although Johann Sebastian took the motet genre (and presumably his singers) to the limits of possibility, one can also hear the strong influence of the family tradition.

This is the first of a series of location-specific Solomon’s Knot recording projects. They have chosen Arnstadt’s inspirational Bachkirche for these works, not only for its wonderful acoustic, but also as a place which connects the two Bachs: Johann Christoph was born in Arnstadt, and Johann Sebastian’s first job as an organist was at the church, which came to be named after him.

Solomons Knot

Solomon's Knot
Determined to communicate the full power of 17th- and 18th-century music as directly as possible, the collective Solomon’s Knot was founded in London in 2008. Led by artistic director Jonathan Sells, the group performs without a conductor, the singers by heart.

What began a decade ago as a promise never to lose the joy of performing, to blow the dust off early music and break down the barriers of classical music has evolved into Solomon’s Knot’s reputation today: direct communication, adventurous programming and bold trademark performances from memory.

Our flexible approach enables us to explore a wide range of repertoire, especially music written before 1800, from the madrigals of Gesualdo to JS Bach’s Mass in B minor with 10 singers and 20 instrumentalists, or the rediscovery of the anonymous opera Lospedale' (ca. 1650), available on DVD.

By exploring new ways of presenting ancient music to ‘modern’ ears, eyes and minds, we work closely together with directors, composers, choreographers, visual artists, and other ensembles. From 2013-2017 Solomon’s Knot was part of Snape Malting’s inaugural Open Space development scheme. Recent collaborations include projects with Spira mirabilis, Sven Werner, James Hurley, Tim Caroll, Federay Holmes and Les Passions de l’Ame.

We are grateful to Sir John Eliot Gardiner for his invitations to the Bachfest Leipzig in 2016 and his Barbican Bach Weekend in 2018. We have also appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, Händel-Festspiele Halle, Newbury Spring Festival, Thüringer Bachwochen, Regensburger Tage Alter Musik, Spitalfields Music Winter Festival, London Handel Festival, and St John’s Smith Square Christmas Festival.

Solomon’s Knot finished 2018 with the revival of our project ‘Christmas in Leipzig' in Nottingham and London’s Milton Court, recorded live and released on Sony Classical in 2019. “Time and again zig-zagging choruses, lightly accompanied, sprang into fire almost as if by spontaneous combustion. Most exciting.” The Times *****

Concerts in 2019 included our Wigmore Hall debut with the second version of JS Bach’s Johannes-Passion, returns to the Thüringer Bachwochen, Leipzig Bachfest, and St George’s Bristol, a residency at the Ryedale Festival, and our first appearance at the Bachwochen in Thun (Switzerland).

SKonnect, Solomon’s Knot’s education strategy, aims to take the excitement of so-called ‘early’ music into classrooms and workshops around the UK and further afield. Recently, schools in Nottingham and London have benefitted from hearing musicians perform for them live and explain the wonders of this colourful and exhilarating repertoire.

Booklet for Bach Motets