Graupner, Leonarda, Bach
Cantus Concordiae

 Cantus Concordiae

Thomas Busch, baritone

Erica Barzoni, violin

Carlo Benatti, organ

Conservatorio Lucio Campiani Vocal Ensemble (Benedetta Bovio, Jian Bo, Zheng Leyi, Yang Yiling, Zheng Shu Han, Lu Jiacheng, Pietro Turina)

Christoph Graupner (1683–1760)

Jesu, führe meine Seele BWV 158

Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704)

O vana cogitatio (Sacred motet)

Sonata duodecima à Violino Solo, Op. 16 (Bologna, 1693)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

Der Friede sei mit dir BWV 158

30’ | Admission with complimentary ticket offered by Oficina OCM and Gruppo Tea

PLEASE NOTE: Tickets may only be reserved and collected at the Trame Sonore Festival Box Office.

Thomas Busch, a baritone with extensive experience in the German sacred repertoire, together with violinist Erica Barzoni and organist Carlo Benatti, leads the Vocal Ensemble of the Conservatorio Campiani of Mantua in a programme that places Johann Sebastian Bach in dialogue with two composers whom history has often passed over more quickly than it has truly listened to. Christoph Graupner was, in fact, among the leading candidates for the prestigious post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig: only the refusal of his employer in Darmstadt prevented his appointment, thus opening the way for Bach. Yet history has not fully done justice to Graupner’s music, and his Jesu, führe meine Seele reveals both the expressive depth and contrapuntal mastery of this composer.

Alongside him, Isabella Leonarda emerges as a singular voice of the Italian seventeenth century: a Novarese nun and composer of more than two hundred sacred works, she developed a deeply personal and intensely lyrical spiritual language. Her O vana cogitatio and Sonata duodecima for violin intertwine devotion and invention, revealing a style of remarkable freedom for the conventual context in which it was conceived.

Bringing the programme to a close, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Der Friede sei mit dir restores the listener to a dimension of balance and transparency: a musical peace that is not merely a conclusion, but a synthesis. In this dialogue among three distant yet unexpectedly kindred voices, the theme of concord is not simply evoked — it is constructed, step by step, through listening.

Text by Federica Mastantuono