Bachs Magnificat
Bachs Magnificat has one upcoming show in the Netherlands: on December 11, 2026 at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht.
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About
The Nederlandse Bachvereniging brings together two settings of the Magnificat, one by Johann Sebastian Bach and one by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel. JS Bach wrote his version shortly after taking up the post of Thomascantor in Leipzig, and it received its first performance on 2 July 1723. The Magnificat is one of the most enduring texts in Catholic liturgy, a setting of the Song of Mary from the Gospel of Luke that attracted composers from Monteverdi and Bruckner to Rachmaninov and Pärt. CPE Bach composed his own version in 1749, a year before his father died. He had grown up hearing the piece as a fixture of Sunday services, though he never managed to succeed his father at the Thomaskirche. He went on to work as a court musician in Potsdam and later became Kapellmeister in Hamburg. German Christmas songs are woven through the programme, along with the Ave maris stella.
