Liturgical music can be heard in many New York City places of worship, ranging from Wall Street (where the sounds of period instruments can be heard at Trinity Church) to Harlem, where heirloom tambourines hiss and rattle in the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Near the middle lies the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity (1902) on Central Park West at 65th Street (across the street from Central Park) where, on selected Sundays at 5pm—from October to May—a series of Bach Vespers is presented.

Recently it was a nine voice choir (including four soloists) and a chamber orchestra consisting a bass viol, cello, viola, two violins and a continuum (organ) in a program including a Prelude, a Motet and Cantata BWV 153.

This free concert was held within the aura of candle light—each congregant holding one—which, combined with the church’s many massive candelabra, created a calming, contemplative atmosphere in the comfortably full nave and to whom Vicar Ivan Kaveloff convincingly wove his sermon into a cunning ‘revelation’ of Bach’s musical intricacies.

To top it all off, there is an overhead Tiffany Studios stained glass window depicting The Second Coming of Christ.