This fascinating recording by BachPlus presents seldom recorded works by the Bach family and their great inspiration, Buxtehude. The players perform on histrorical instruments and the works have been recorded with great respect for the present knowledge regarding HIPP (Historically Informed Performance Practice).

Our fetishist regard for John Sebastian Bach as the pinnacle of Western art music obscures the fact that his talent was spawned by at least three generations of gifted predecessors. We celebrate this lineage by exploring the musical family archive Bach discovered in 1735. Among the hidden gems are intensely moving Geistliche Konzerte by his cousin Johann Christoph Bach, and the latter’s father Heinrich Bach. In his earliest preserved cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden, Johann Sebastian superbly imitates the polyphonic motet style of these foregoers, which was going out of fashion, though Bach seems to have cherished it enough to revisit the cantata on several occasions in later years. The Belgian ensemble BachPlus brings homage to Bach’s undying love of a dying art, in a recording which juxtaposes private devotion with protestant ecstasy.

BachPlus is a project which was founded in 2010 by soprano Elisabeth Hermans and keyboard player/conductor Bart Naessens. The core business of the project is focussed on the monthly organisation of a Bach cantata concert (BachPlus Cantata Series) in the Baroque Jesuit church of Aalst (Belgium) and the impressive historic St Bavo church in Aardenburg (Netherlands). In addition to these monthly performances of Bach cantatas the ensemble organises each year a bigger concert around a big composition of master JS Bach (Magnificat, BWV243, B minor Mass, BWV232, Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV248...).

Recently, the ensemble enlarged its activities and became one of Belgium’s leading Baroque ensembles, specialised in the performance of Baroque music. The ensemble BachPlus unites musicians from across Europe that built their vital and valuable experience of historical performance practice during playing at several renowned ensembles and/or through their own activities and initiatives.