The Leipzig Bachfest invited its audience to choose works for two programs of Bach cantatas, filled with masterpieces: John Eliot Gardiner followed the audience's expectations by composing two programs based on these recommendations.

This first program offers a luminous dialogue between the tradition of the 17th century German motet and the masterful art of Johann Sebastian Bach, a tutelary figure of Baroque music.

Michael Prætorius's motet " Wie schön leuchtet" opens the evening with an exclamation of joy: that of divine light personified by the morning star. This poetic and mystical image will find a brilliant echo in Bach's Cantata BWV 1, built on the same Lutheran chorale. Bach's lush writing magnifies the text with pomp and depth, announcing the tone of this musical meditation.

With Johann Hermann Schein's Ich bin die Wurzel , we return to a more stripped-down form, rooted in sacred rhetoric. The work illustrates the art of the Germanic motet, where polyphony, in the service of the word, expresses an embodied spiritual truth.

The cantata "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen ," one of Bach's few cantatas for solo voice, marks a moment of profound introspection: the acceptance of earthly suffering as a passage to eternal peace. The writing is poignant, almost operatic, in its expressiveness.

The second part opens with another master of the German motet: Heinrich Schütz. His Ich bin eine rufende Stimme embodies the prophet's call in the desert, announcing the coming of Christ. The musical language is direct, yet imbued with fervor.

With the cantata Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden , Bach captures the anguish of twilight – both spiritual and earthly. This strikingly tender work immerses us in the intimacy of the believer imploring the divine presence as night falls.

Schütz's motet Ich bin ein right Weinstock gently and clearly recalls the biblical image of Christ the vine, the source of life and spiritual fertility.

Finally, Es erhub sich ein Streit closes this program with a triumphant fresco: the cosmic struggle between Good and Evil, in an exhilarating, jubilant, almost celestial musical language.

This musical journey, carried by the excellence of the Constellation Choir and Orchestra under the inspired direction of John Eliot Gardiner, highlights the theological and artistic spirit that runs through more than a century of German sacred music.