Spring Vespers: Tears to Joy

Bach Society Houston is bringing Spring Vespers: Tears to Joy to Christ the King Lutheran Church on Saturday, May 1, 2027. The program is Bach's cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21, and it's the final performance of the society's season.

If you're not familiar with the piece, it's built around a pretty stark emotional arc. It opens with plaintive oboe writing that sets a heavy, grieving tone, and from there it climbs toward triumphant trumpets and timpani that lift the music—and the listener—from grief to jubilation. By the time it reaches the end, the mood has shifted completely. The cantata closes with the same text that Handel would use a generation later to end Messiah, so it's a piece that moves from a low point to a high one.

That trajectory is why the society titled this particular performance Tears to Joy. It's also why it serves as the season finale: the whole thing is designed to end on a high note. The Bach Society Houston has spent the season working through their program, and this is the performance that wraps it all up.

It's a mid-afternoon show, running from 3 PM to 4:30 PM at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Blvd. in the Kirby-West U area. Tickets are $35 general and $10 for students.