Hungary Bach, Cantata BWV 69 (Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele): Lutherania Choir, musicians / Salamon Kamp (conductor). Lutheran Church, Deák Square, 1052 Budapest, 7.9.2025. (AK)
How often do we have opportunities to hear Bach Cantatas performed within the church service as intended by Bach? Yet this is the experience which the Lutherania Choir provides by performing all two hundred surviving cantatas composed by Bach for the relevant scripture on a particular Sunday.
In early September 2025 I attended a Lutheran (Protestant) church service in Budapest.
For me the attraction was the inclusion of a Bach Cantata into this regular Sunday morning worship. The Cantata I heard on this occasion was BWV 69 (Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele).
The ensemble needed consists of four solo singers (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), an instrumental group of fifteen (three oboes, flute, bassoon, three trumpets, timpani, two violins, viola, violoncello and organ continuo) and a four-part choir (the last of which consisted of forty singers on this occasion).
I would not say that the church was packed, nevertheless the sizeable congregation was there for the purpose of their regular Sunday morning service, not for any other reason. I doubt if they knew that elsewhere, in another church, they would not have had the luxury of a high standard professional performance of a Bach Cantata.
The singers/musicians were on the gallery, not seen by the congregation, although – turning my head back towards the gallery instead of the altar and priest in front of me – I did see conductor Salamon Kamp directing his forces.
The service started with Bach, that is with the first three movements of the Cantata. Then followed seamlessly the sermon and other church rituals. The morning concluded with the remaining three movements of the Cantata, with the congregation joining into the final choral. As far as I could tell, they all knew the melody but printed text (in Hungarian) was provided to all the congregation. There was no applause at any time, the music was an integral part of the service.
The standard of musical performance was high, solo singers and instrumentalists were experienced professional musicians, the choir was the above mentioned splendid Lutherania Choir under their regular conductor Salamon Kamp.
Elsewhere on this site I reviewed performances conducted by Salamon Kamp (review here) whose knowledge of Bach I deem as second to none. It is astonishing that anybody can walk into this church and have the privilege to experience Salamon Kamp conducting Bach, just as congregations heard Bach himself leading the music in German church services some three hundred years ago.
Agnes Kory
Forthcoming Sunday morning services with Bach Cantatas at Deák Square in 2025:
26th October 2025, Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei (BMV 179)
16th November 2025, Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg (BWV 149)
23rd November 2025, Bekennen will ich seinen Namen (BWV 200)
14th December 2025, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (BWV 110)