This week we are reposting music by J. S. Bach shared by Michael Barrett a few years ago. This post original ran on September 22, 2017.

To end the week on an upbeat, let’s have a group sing. Here is the opening chorus from Bach’s Cantata No. 11. It is from the marvelous complete cantata recordings by Gustave Leonhardt and Nicholas Harnoncourt. I had the good fortune of participating in masterclasses with both of them on various occasions. I wasn’t exactly a baroque-nik, but their music making was so fresh and vital, I felt I needed to learn from them. They have both passed on, and I miss their generous musical positivity. But their recordings remain among my favorites. And what a contribution: ALL the extant cantatas. Wow.

And whether you believe in Luther’s religion, or God, or anything, the music is about praising the best in all of us through song. That lines up with me, and the ethos of NYFOS.