"If ever there was a family in which an extraordinary disposition for the same art seemed to be hereditary, it was certainly the family of...

"If ever there was a family in which an extraordinary disposition for the same art seemed to be hereditary, it was certainly the family of Bach; through six successive generations there were scarcely two or three members of it who had not received from nature the gifts of a very distinguished talent for music and who did not make the practice of this art the main occupation of their lives." Thus begins On Johan Sebastian Bach's Life, Genius and Works (1802) y Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach's first biographer. The phenomenon of the "Bach Family" was a source of wonderment to contemporaries, who marveled at this proliferation of musical talent from generation to generation. And it has not lost any of its fascination to this day.

The aim of this recording is to present a panorama of the sacred vocal music of the Bach family.

The Bach family was the largest and most incredibly talented musical families of all time. Even before Johann Sebastian began composing, his uncles Johann Ludwig and Georg Christoph Bach, and children, C.P.E., Wilhelm Friedemann after him, and still later Johann Christian, Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst - to name but a few members of the famous Bach family, were all accomplished musicians and composers. For nearly two hundred years, the Bach family dedicated themselves to singing God's praises in music. Helmuth Rilling, who has made the works of the great Johann Sebsatian and his family his life work, performs these pieces with delicacy, energy and intelligence - providing an overview of the astounding diversity of musical language of the Bach family.