J. S. Bach’s extant motets punch well above their weight in numbers, given that there are just six of them, in comparison to the 200 out of 300 cantatas which survive.

The reason being that the motets were commissioned for special occasions, usually funereal while the cantatas were far more pedestrian in purpose – if not in writin – as music for weekly liturgical services.

The Bach Akademie Australia combines the splendid Easter Monday cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen BWV 66 with the divine burial motet Komm, Jesu, komm BWV 229 in the opening half of its Easter 2023 presentation, culminating in the first of his four Kyrie–Gloria ‘Lutheran’ Masses, also known as the Missa Brevis in F major BWV 233.

Artistic Director of the Bach Akademie Australia, Madeleine Easton, has gathered 13 voices and 15 instrumentalists whom she directs both from the violin and the rostrum.

Bach Akademie Australia. Photo supplied.

Easton unleashes the full forces of the ensemble in the opening chorus of BWV 66, deliriously swirling figures from the strings engaging in backchat with the brilliant, declamatory trumpet line entrusted to Richard Fomison, sitting comfortably in the key of D...