Reformation 1517-2017 - Ross, Graham

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In 1517, indignant at mercenary practices of the Catholic Church and convinced that a public debate was needed to restore faith in the founding texts of the Bible, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg Castle. This marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, of which he was a seminal figure, which was to spread all over Europe.

Five hundred years later, in 2017, Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge marked the anniversary with a series of cantatas by J. S. Bach performed liturgically in Clare College Chapel on the eight Sundays of Lent Term. This recording is the culmination of that project, presenting chronologically the two great Reformation cantatas of J. S. Bach and three chorale-based works by Mendelssohn, Brahms and Vaughan Williams, each preceded here by the chorale melody or hymn on `which they are based, giving an insight into the emotional and dramatic strength of the Reformation's theological and cultural legacy.