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Bach, the Universe & Everything: February 2026

London, King's Place

Sunday 22 February 2026, 11:30

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Music includes

CLEMENS O Maria vernans rosa
BACH Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan BWV 100 (What God does is well done)
Performers

Sofia Kirwan-Baez soprano
Angharad Rowlands alto
Hugo Brady tenor
Peter Edge bass
Steven Devine director/organ

Price

£21 + fees

Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (BWV 100) is a remarkable cantata that was probably performed at a special occasion in Leipzig in 1734.

The unspecified occasion may have been a wedding as the chorale upon which it is based was a well-known wedding song in the city. The result is a work in which Bach challenges his singers and instrumentalists: the opening fantasia is followed unusually by no less than four arias (and no recitatives) for the quartet of vocal soloists with impressive solos for flute and oboe d’amore.

The guest speaker for this month will be announced shortly.

Jacobus Clemens

Our focus on the music of the Flemish composer Jacobus Clemens (c. 1510 – 1556) continues with the motet O Maria vernans rosa, a paean to Mary as a light ‘brighter than the stars’ who guides and protects. He was a prolific composer of sacred music and was greatly admired by many of his contemporaries including Orlando Lassus. Curiously, he came to be known as Clemens non Papa, that is Clemens-but-Not-the-Pope – thought to be a reference to Pope Clement VII – there is very little evidence this distinction was necessary leading to speculation it may have been an ‘in joke’!

Celestial Inventions and Divine Music

Inspired by the music of JS Bach, composer and intergalactic genius, Bach, the Universe and Everything is a concert season with a difference that places his cantatas in the context of the amazing cosmic discoveries of the last 350 years.

Exploring the “Final Frontier” has drawn the most extraordinary ingenuity and inventions from humans in that time. This season we’ll cover topics from how the John Webb Space Telescope has enabled us to see back to the beginning of time to how the sea clocks of John Harrison solved the greatest scientific problem of his time.

Bach wrote over 200 church cantatas. In them we find Bach putting the full range of his creative flair to work to illuminate his faith for the congregation. In seeking to go beyond the frontier of the heavens to reach for the divine he also gifted us music that is intensely devotional yet also shines with brilliant musicianship. In the first few years after his move to Leipzig in 1723, Bach composed a cantata nearly every week for performance at services on Sundays – but this season we will also hear cantatas from earlier in his career in Weimar and later years in Leipzig.

Violinist Julia Kuhn and bass player Cecelia Bryggemyer playing in the playground at Acland burghley School

Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki conducts the OAE with singer Florian Stortz

OAE musicians run a workshop in a school classroom

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Bach, the Universe & Everything: February 2026

London, King's Place

Sunday 22 February 2026, 11:30

Event detail

Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (BWV 100) is a remarkable cantata that was probably performed at a special occasion in Leipzig in 1734.

Jacobus Clemens

Celestial Inventions and Divine Music

Did you know you can support the OAE?

Hear it first

Sign up to our newsletter

Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (BWV 100) is a remarkable cantata that was probably performed at a special occasion in Leipzig in 1734.

Jacobus Clemens

Celestial Inventions and Divine Music

Did you know you can support the OAE?

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