The visionary Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

By "the great Bach" in the late eighteenth century, people usually meant Carl Philipp Emanuel, not his father. Even Mozart conducted his oratorio Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu!

Resurrection and Ascension
In the series of forgotten passion oratorios unearthed by the Netherlands Bach Society in the NTR Saturday Matinee, Bach's second son Carl Philipp Emanuel arrives with Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu. Actually, it is not a passion oratorio because, as the title suggests, it is not the suffering and death that are sung, but Christ's resurrection and ascension.

The feeling is central
C.Ph.E. Bach seems to strike exactly the chord of the times with this work, explicitly intended for the concert hall and not the liturgy. The libretto contains little action: it mainly describes feelings; ideal for this time of great "Empfindsamkeit. The oratorio was a great success from its first performances in Hamburg and was published fairly quickly. In 1788 Mozart conducted three performances in Vienna. C.Ph.E., who could not attend himself, at one performance took the enthusiastic responses of the predominantly aristocratic audience in the form of an effigy, which was circulated around the hall. Applause everywhere!