Kuhnau spent most of his life in Leipzig, where J.S. Bach succeeded him as director of music for the major churches and as director of a Collegium Musicum, an ensemble that performed public concerts. With his Biblical Story Sonatas (1700), he pioneered in the creation of program music, music that tells a story, a procedure in which Vivaldi, Liszt, Sibelius, Strauss, and countless other composers engaged over the centuries. This concert presents an aria from one of his sacred cantatas.

Program note by Don Anderson.