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Duke Arts Presents

Vox Luminis
Heinrich Schütz & the Bach Family

Thursday, October 30, 2014 | 8:00 pm

Duke Chapel


Founded ten years ago, the young Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis have quickly earned a reputation among choral music aficionados for their fervent dedication to renaissance and baroque repertoire, their exquisite tuning and blend, and their clarity of sound. In 2012, the ensemble won Gramophone Recording of the Year for their release of Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, a masterwork of 17th-century polyphony.

Schütz’s requiem forms half of Vox Luminis’ program in the contemplative and soaring setting of Duke Chapel. The evening’s second part is a rare opportunity to hear the motets of the extended Bach clan. J.S. Bach himself curated the work of his uncles, and in Vox Luminis’ interpretation of this brilliant family’s compositions, their sound is “warm and resonant — they sing this 300-year-old music with the freshness and ardor of true believers” (The Independent).

Program

Heinrich Schütz & the Bach Family

Martin Luther: Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin
Heinrich Schütz: Musikalische Exequien, op.7, SWV 279-281
Johann Bach: Sei nun wieder zufrieden meine Seele
Johann Michael Bach: Herr wenn ich nur dich habe
Johann Michael Bach: Unser Leben wärhet siebzig Jahr
Johann Michael Bach: Ich weiβ daβ mein Erlöser lebt
Johann Christoph Bach: Herr nun lässest du deinen Diener
Johann Ludwig Bach: Das Blut Jesu Christi
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ich lasse dich nicht, BWV 159a