Elin Manahan Thomas Sings a Bach Discovery

Published May 7, 2023 at 6:00 AM EDT

On the left, Bach's manuscript for Cantata BWV 1127, and on the right, soprano Elin Manahan Thomas — Left: manuscript facsimile of Bach's Cantata BWV 1127; Right: soprano Elin Manahan Thomas

On The Bach Hour, the Welsh soprano is the soloist in the first recording of a cantata that had been lost for almost three centuries, a discovery described by Harvard University's Christoph Wolff.

On the program:

Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr', BWV 662 - Jacob Street, organ (Richards, Fowkes, & Co. organ at First Lutheran Church, Boston)

Cantata BWV 112 Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt (translation) - Katharine Fuge, soprano; William Towers, alto; Norbert Meyn, tenor; Stephen Varcoe, bass; Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Concerto in D for three violins, BWV 1064R - Petra Müllejans, Gottfried von der Goltz, and Anne Katharina Schreiber, violins; Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn, BWV 1127 (translation) - Elin Manahan Thomas, soprano; English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiiner, conductor