Easter Oratorio (Kommt, Eilet und Laufet; Come, Hasten, and Run), BWV 249.5 (BC D 8bII): Full Orchestra Conductor Score

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) first created the music that became the Easter Oratorio (Kommt, Eilet und Laufet; Come, Hasten, and Run), BWV 249.5 in Leipzig in 1725, adapting material from the secular Shepherd Cantata, BWV 249a, into an Easter cantata first performed on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1725, at the Nikolaikirche morning service and again at Thomaskirche vespers. Bach later revised the work as an oratorio in 1738 and returned to it again in the 1740s, producing the late version now catalogued as BWV 249.5, in which the third movement was expanded from duet to chorus; he performed the work again on April 6, 1749, one of the last documented performances he directed. Unlike Bach's Passion settings, the Easter Oratorio contains no Evangelist, direct biblical narration, or chorales, instead presenting a vivid dramatic meditation on the disciples and women hastening to Christ's empty tomb. Scored festively with trumpets, timpani, winds, strings, continuo, soloists, and chorus, the work stands today as one of Bach's major sacred oratorios, less frequently performed than the Christmas Oratorio or Passions but increasingly valued. Instrumentation: 1+2(Recorder).2(1st dObd'a).0.1: 0.3.0.0: Timp: Hpschd: Str (2.2.2.1.1 in set): Soli SATB: Mix Chorus. Reprint of the edition by Wilhelm Rust, published as part of the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe. Harpsichord realized by Diethard Hellman.