Now regarded as one of the greatest of all composers, Bach excelled his forebears and contemporaries, although he did not always reccive the respect he deserved in his own life-time. From 1723 he was employed as Cantor at the Choir School of St. Thomas in Leipzig, with responsibility for music in the five principal city churches. In the Lutheran Hauptgottesdienst (principal service) in Leipzig, the cantata was the main musical item with a text related to the gospel reading of the day. The Advent cantatas presented here are wonderfully diverse, both in style and orchestration.