Tiny Concerts

You leave the city’s chaos behind when you enter the jewel-box Chapel of All Saints to attend a Tiny Concert. Each 45-minute program of early music has been conceived to highlight the warm intimacy of the small, English Gothic–style sanctuary tucked off Trinity’s nave, and the new pipe organ built just for that space — and for another time. The unique instrument, which features a rarely heard tuning system popular in the 17th and 18th centuries and pipes painstakingly cast by hand, creates, as Trinity’s organist Avi Stein puts it, “a particularly gentle sound” that is far “removed from the canyon of skyscrapers outside.” 

Thursday, May 15, 5:30–6:15 pm and 6:30–7:15 pm 

Written by Johann Sebastian’s older cousin, Johann Christoph Bach, the cantata Mein Freundin, du bist schön is a profoundly beautiful and joyous setting of love poetry from the Song of Songs. Most likely performed at the wedding of Johann Sebastian’s brother, the work is but one example of the prodigious talent that preceded Johann Sebastian and ran through generations of the Bach family. Performed by Trinity Choir and Trinity Baroque Orchestra, led by Avi Stein on organ.  

Thursday, June 5, 5:30–6:15pm and 6:30–7:15pm  

This evening’s program puts Bach’s work into the context of his predecessors. Hear Musikalische Exequien, op. 7, by the great German composer Heinrich Schütz —a funeral piece that parallels the traditional Latin requiem in its expression of mortality, comfort, and hope. The collection of motets, one of the finest choral cycles of the 17th century, had a far-reaching impact (including on Johannes Brahms, whose German Requiem follows a similar structure of sacred poetry). Bach’s Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf is an homage to this style and his forerunners of the previous century. Performed by Trinity Choir, led by Avi Stein on organ.  

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