The divine varieties of human love

When the divine reveals itself in pure superhuman artistic effort, then, in baroque music, it is inextricably linked with one name: Johann Sebastian Bach. No other composer equated soundscapes so boldly and decidedly with the most profound creeds; no other put his genius so much to the service of his God. In their staged concert "Cantatatanz", the ensemble Nico and the Navigators provide an updated view of his sprawling legacy. A highlight in all this is Oliver Proske's stage design: in the beginning, the old church pews counter the perspective of the audience-congregation, but gradually the hard Protestant seats go from the horizontal to the vertical position, becoming pillars that can be effortlessly rotated and shifted around. They provide the performers with plenty of scope for play – from trying to climb up them, using the armrests to loom over the collective ignorance below, while the famous violin chaconne plays, to a kind of dreamy sliding about. The musicians are included in the action to a greater degree, taking part in scenes in which human beings discover each other in a music made in God's honour.

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