The Chosen One

Leipzig’s got talent: in 1723 Bach competed for one of Germany’s top musical jobs. Today, Laurence Cummings and Academy of Ancient Music reveal exactly what he was up against.

Genius loves company, but when a plum job is up for grabs the gloves come off. After Bach got the gig in Leipzig in 1723, his disappointed employers made it very clear that he wasn’t even their second choice. So who came first – and, for that matter, second? You’d expect them to be good.

Today, we hear exactly how good, as Laurence Cummings and AAM re-open the Leipzig personnel files and go musical headhunting all over again. Hear the very cantatas that Georg Philipp Telemann and Christoph Graupner composed as musical job applications – music that gave Bach a run for his money. And then, of course, we’ll hear from the man himself: first among equals in a golden age of sacred music.

Christoph Graupner - ‘Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden’, GWV 1113/23b
Georg Philipp Telemann - ‘Ich muß auf dem Berge weinen und heulen’, TWV 1:851
Johann Sebastian Bach - ‘Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn’, BWV 23