‘GLI ANGELI GENÈVE – STEPHAN MACLEOD’

Johann Sebastian Bach's stay in Mühlhausen from 1707 to 1708, when he was 22 years of age, was a formative experience. Not only did he marry his cousin Maria Barbara there, but he also composed his first religious cantatas. Although influenced by the likes of Buxtehude and Schütz, these early works already demonstrate a mastery of composition in the service of a text. Profoundly spiritual and optimistic, they express an emergence from darkness into light that would characterise his future as a composer.