Main menu

Search

Bach, the Universe & Everything: Don’t Panic!

London, King's Place

Sunday 22 February 2026, 11:30

Book now

Music includes

WALTHER Prelude ‘Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan’
CLEMENS O Maria vernans rosa
BACH Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan BWV 100 (What God does is well done)
DRAGHI From Harmony, from Heav’nly Harmony (5th movement)
Performers

Sofia Kirwan-Baez soprano
Bethany Horak-Hallett alto
Hugo Brady tenor
Peter Edge bass
Steven Devine director/organ

with
Simon Brett guest speaker

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.

Our guest speaker is Simon Brett, the producer of the original pilot episode for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for BBC Radio 4, who will look back on working with its wildly brilliant creator in a special edition to mark the 25^th anniversary of Douglas Adams’ death. He will consider how this unconventional intergalactic comedy adventure became so influential and why space made an ideal canvas for exploring the meaning of human life, the universe and… everything.

Simon Brett is the writer of the Charles Paris and Mrs Pargeter crime novel series, as well as several plays and radio sitcoms.

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 James 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

Did you know you can support the OAE?

We are redefining what it means to be an orchestra in the 2020s. Support the OAE today.

£20

£50

£180

You might also be interested in...

London, King's Place

Bach, the Universe & Everything: Harrison's Clocks

Sun 22 Mar 2026

A very special season finale marks the 250th anniversary of the death of one of Britain's most phenomenal…

Book now Find out more

London, Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall

Mozart's World: The Last Symphonies

Thu 26 Feb 2026

Through the summer of 1788 Mozart was consumed in a burst of inspiration. The result was the three remarkable symphonies that turned out to be his last. Rarely heard together, Robin Ticciati takes us inside Mozart’s bold, stormy and divine creations.

Book now Find out more

London, Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall

St John Passion

Sun 29 Mar 2026

Johanna Soller makes her London debut in Bach’s soulful St John Passion. The Artistic Director of the Munich Bach Choir has been praised for her unique combination of emotion, focused energy and intelligence.

Book now Find out more

London, King's Place

Bach, the Universe & Everything: Harrison's Clocks

Sun 22 Mar 2026

A very special season finale marks the 250th anniversary of the death of one of Britain's most phenomenal…

Book now Find out more

London, Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall

Mozart's World: The Last Symphonies

Thu 26 Feb 2026

Book now Find out more

London, Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall

St John Passion

Sun 29 Mar 2026

Book now Find out more

Support us

Be part of our story

Main menu

Support us

Our Mission

Support us

Be part of our story

Search

Support us

Be part of our story

Bach, the Universe & Everything: Don’t Panic!

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