Bach - O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe [BWV34] and Vivaldi Gloria - St Edmundsbury Cathedral

21 May 2022, 21:00

I performed music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday 21st May 2022. I played first trumpet, with William Russell and Gareth Hoddinott in the trumpet section.

The performance, which featured the Bury Bach Choir—in their 90th year—and the Suffolk Baroque Players, began with Bach’s O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht [BWV 118] and continued with O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe [BWV 34]. A piece entitled Der Gerechte kommt um, Bach’s revision of a motet by his predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, was performed at the end of the first half of the programme, with Vivaldi’s Gloria filling the second half. I had the great pleasure of playing the trumpet part for the latter alongside my colleague and good friend, Leo Duarte (oboe).

Philip Reed directed the ensemble, and the soloists were Rachel Dyson (soprano), Valerie Reid (mezzo-soprano) and Graeme Danby (bass). The performance was dedicated to the Bury Bach Choir’s long-serving rehearsal accompanist, James Recknell: the programme had been chosen to reflect some of his favourite works. He had played with the Bury Bach Choir for more than one hundred concerts.

It was a gorgeous day, and it was lovely to sit in the sunny grounds of the St Edmundsbury Cathedral before the rehearsal—listening, oddly enough, to the sound of highland bagpipers and drummers who were playing at the entrance to the cathedral gardens. Upon closer inspection, it was a pipe band from Suffolk: but we joked that they were also audible in Norfolk and Essex—and they were excellent!

Bury St Edmunds is a lovely town: it is well worth a visit.

Russell Gilmour

writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.