Bach at Noon
J.S. Bach: Cantata: Widerstehe doch die Sünde BWV 54 Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber: Sonata IV in g minor from Fidicinium Sacro-profanum Isabella Leonarda: Sonata Seconda from Sonate á 1, 2, 3, e 4 Istromenti Op. 16 In the second installment of BCSD's 2019-2020 Bach at Noon series, "Sacred and Profane" invites the listener to explore music that inhabits the gray area between the secular and the religious worlds of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704), probably the first woman composer to publish sonatas of any kind, bestowed all of her works with dual dedications: one to a powerful temporal patron such as a nobleman or a cardinal, and the other to the Virgin Mary. Likewise, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's 1683 collection Fidicinium sacro-profanum (loosely, "Sacred and profane fiddle music") carries a subtitle alluding to its hybrid nature: "arranged with art for both the court and for the church." The program concludes with J.S. Bach's masterful early cantata Widerstehe doch die Sünde BWV 54 (1714), which from its very first boldly jarring chords, exhorts its audience to reject worldly temptations.