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1 CD -
BIS-2351 SACD - (p) 2018
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SECULAR
CANTATAS - Volume 10
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Johann
Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) |
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"Angenehmes
Wiederau, freue dich in deinen
Auen", BWV 30a |
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35' 35" |
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Tromba I, II, III,
Timpani, Flauto traverso I, II, Oboe
I, II, Oboe d'amore, Violino I, II,
Viola, Soprano (Zeit),
Alto (Glück), Tenore (Elster),
Basso (Schicksal), Continuo |
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Chorus: Angenehmes
Wiederau... |
3' 53" |
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Recitativo (Basso, Soprano, Alto,
Tenore): So ziehen
wir... |
0' 53" |
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Aria (Basso): Willkommen
im Heil, willkommen in
Freuden... |
4' 22" |
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Recitativo (Alto): Da heute dir, gepriesner
Hennicke... |
0' 36" |
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Aria (Alto): Was die Seele kann
ergötzen... |
5' 54" |
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Recitativo (Basso): Und wie ich jederzeit
bedacht... |
0' 38" |
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Aria (Basso): Ich
will dich halten... |
5' 44" |
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Recitativo (Soprano): Und obwohl sonst der
Unbestand... |
0' 55" |
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Aria (Soprano): Eilt, ihr Stunden, wie
ihr wollt... |
4' 15" |
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- Recitativo
(Tenore): So
recht! Ihr seid mir werte
Gäste... |
0' 42" |
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Aria (Tenore): So, wie
ich die Tropfen zolle... |
2' 31" |
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- Recitativo
(Soprano, Alto, Tenore, Basso): Drum, angenehmes
Wiederau... |
1' 16" |
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Chorus: Angenehmes
Wiederau... |
3' 53" |
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Von der Vergnügsamkeit |
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"Ich bin in mir vergnügt",
BWV 204 |
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29' 54" |
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Flauto traverso, Oboe
I, II, Violino I, II, Viola,
Soprano, Continuo |
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Recitativo: Ich bin
in mir vergnügt... |
1' 35" |
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Aria: Ruhig und
in sich zufrieden... |
6' 45" |
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[Recitativo]: Ihr
Seelen, die ihr außer euch... |
2' 01" |
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Aria: Die
Schätzbarkeit der weiten
Erden... |
4' 44" |
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Recitativo: Schwer
ist es zwar, viel Eitles zu
besitzen... |
1' 55" |
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[Aria]: Meine Seele
sei vergnügt... |
6' 48" |
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Recitativo e Arioso: Ein edler Mensch ist
Perlenmuscheln gleich... |
2' 08" |
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Aria: Himmlische
Vergnügsamkeit... |
3' 54" |
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Carolyn Sampson, soprano
(BWV 30a Zeit, BWV 204)
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BACH COLLEGIUM
JAPAN / Masaaki Suzuki, Direction
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Robin Blaze,
counter-tenor (BWV 30a Glück) |
- Jean-François
Madeuf, Tromba I |
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Makoto Sakurada,
tenor (BWV 30a Elster) |
- Tomohiro Sugimura,
Tromba II |
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Dominik Wörner,
bass (BWV 30a Schicksal) |
- Hidenori Saito, Tromba
III |
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- Atsushi Sugahara,
Timpani |
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Kiyomi Suga,
flauto traverso |
- Kiyomi Suga, Flauto
traverso I |
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Masamitsu
San'nomiya, oboe, oboe d'amore
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- Liliko Maeda, Flauto
traverso II |
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Natsumi Wakamatsu, violino |
- Masamitsu
San'nomiya, Oboe I, Oboe d'amore |
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- Go Arai, Oboe
II |
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CHORUS |
- Natsumi Wakamatsu,
Violino I leader |
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Soprano: |
- Yuko Takeshima, Violino
I |
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Carolyn Sampson,
Minae Fuijisaki, Aki Matsui, Eri Sawae |
- Ayaka Yamauchi, Violino
I |
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Alto: |
- Azumi Takada, Violino
II |
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Robin Blaze,
Hiroya Aoki, Tamaki Suzuki, Chiharu
Takahashi |
- Yuko Araki, Violino
II |
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Tenor: |
- Akira Harada, Violino
II |
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Makoto Sakurada,
Yusuke Fujii, Hiroto Ishikawa, Yosuke
Taniguchi |
- Hiroshi Narita, Viola |
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Basso: |
- Mika Haradaa, Viola |
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Dominik Wörner,
Daisuke Fujii, Chiyuki Urano, Yusuke
Watanabe |
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Continuo: |
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- Toru Yamamoto, Violoncello |
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- Seiji Nishizawa, Violone |
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- Kiyotaka Dosaka, Fagotto |
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- Masato Suzuki, Cembalo |
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Luogo
e data di registrazione |
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Saitama
Arts Theater, Concert Hall (Japan)
- July 2017 |
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Registrazione: live /
studio |
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studio |
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Producer | Engineer |
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Hans
Kipfer (Take5 Music
Production) | Matthias
Spitzbarth | Akimi Hayashi |
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Edizione CD |
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BIS -
BIS-2351 SACD - (1 CD) - durata
66' 11" - (p) & (c) 2018 - DDD |
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Note |
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COMMENTARY
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Angenehmes
Wiederau, BWV 30a
Pleasant
Wiederau
The cantata with
which Bach erected a
musical memorial to
the manorial estate
of Wiederau,
southwest of
Leipzig, is a sister
work of the ‘Peasant
Cantata’ – the cantate
burlesque ‘Mer
hahn en neue
Oberkeet’ (‘We have
a new governor’, BWV
212). Both pieces
were written for
festive occasions at
Saxon noble estates,
and owe their
existence to a
custom known as
‘Erbhuldigung’, the
solemn oath of faith
taken by subjects
upon the arrival of
a new lord of the
manor. In Wiederau
this took place on
28th September 1737.
the new ‘hereditary
lord, liege and
judge’ at Wiederau
was Johann Christian
von Hennicke
(1681–1752),
ennobled in 1728. He
was of humble
origins but had made
a career in the
service of the
Dresden court and,
as a favourite of
the Electoral Saxon
prime minister
Heinrich Graf Brühl,
rose to become a
Dresden privy
councillor and
minister in 1737. On
the title page of
the printed text of
the cantata (which,
incidentally, does
not mention Bach),
three well-wishers
offer the new lord
of the manor their
humble devotion. All
three were civil
servants with
responsibility for
Wiederau, among them
Bach’s regular
Leipzig poet,
Christian Friedrich
Henrici (also known
as Picander;
1700–64).
Professionally he
was a tax official,
and this manorial
estate was part of
his administrative
district. Evidently
it was the three
well-wishers who
commissioned and
paid for the work –
and no doubt they
were hoping to get
something in return.
Picander contributed
the text for the
cantata. It takes
the form of a dramma
per musica, a
dramatic cantata
with four
characters. In this
case they are ‘die
Zeit’ (Time;
soprano), ‘das
Glück’ (Good
Fortune; alto), ‘der
Elster’ (the river
bordering the palace
park in Wiederau;
tenor) and ‘das
Schicksal’ (Fate;
bass). The text
shows the
librettist’s
experience: the
whole piece is
framed by two tutti
strophes in praise
of Wiederau. In
between, however,
the four
protagonists take
turns to have their
say, each with a
recitative and aria.
In the first pair of
movements, Fate –
flanked by his three
com panions – tells
of the wellbeing of
Wiederau (movements
2–3). Then the
characters speak
directly to Hennicke
– Good Fortune, Fate
and Time surpassing
each other in
flattering
felicitations and
assurances
(movements 4–9). The
Elster’s words lead
us in another
direction: the river
invites Hennicke’s
peasant subjects to
build on the ‘Au und
Ufer’ (‘meadow and
river banks’), and
to contribute to
Wiederau’s affluence
through their
efforts (movements
10–11). In the final
recitative (twelfth
movement) the four
characters, led by
Time, offer – first
alternately, then
together – their
good wishes for all
of Wiederau and
especially for
Hennicke and his
family, and the
final chorus
confirms all of this
with its optimistic
forecast of unending
prosperity, growth
and welfare.
The celebrations in
Wiederau were not
just some country
gathering in a
peasant milieu.
Representatives of
the Dresden court
will have been in
attendance, likewise
members of the
nobility and of the
Leipzig civil
service, and the
audience would
surely have included
educated musical
connoisseurs. And
Bach showed what he
could do. The
scoring is
appropriate for such
an occasion:
trumpets and
timpani, two flutes,
two oboes, strings
and continuo join
forces with the
singers in a highly
colourful piece of
music. Each of the
arias has its own
combination of
instruments: the
full strings (third
movement) are joined
by the flute (fifth
movement), then by
the concertante oboe
and solo violin
(seventh movement).
In the ninth
movement the violins
play in unison, and
the eleventh,
finally, offers us
flute and oboe
together with the
strings.
Furthermore, this is
surprisingly modern
music. The spirit of
a new age, the
period of Bach’s
sons and pupils and
of the
Italian-influenced
stylistic world of
Dresden court music
around Johann Adolf
Hasse (1699–1783),
permeates the entire
cantata. This
applies to the
dance-like opening
and closing choruses
with their
fashionable
syncopations as much
as to the arias.
These are all based
on dance patterns,
here combined with
new stylistic
elements, especially
the syncopations and
triplets that had
become so popular in
the 1730s,
‘Lombardic slides’,
and parallel sixths
and thirds. The bass
aria ‘Willkommen im
Heil’ (‘Welcome in
health’; third
movement) is a
veritable passepied
(albeit one with
plentiful ‘health’
and ‘joy’
coloraturas), whilst
the alto aria ‘Was
die Seele kann
ergötzen’ (‘That
which can delight
the soul’, fifth
movement) is a
gavotte, strikingly
reshaped with
syncopations and
triplets. The second
bass aria, ‘Ich will
dich halten’ (‘I
shall uphold you’,
seventh movement),
has the char acter
of a march and
surprises the
listener with a
theme dominated by
fashionable slide
figures. Time’s
soprano aria ‘Eilt,
ihr Stunden’
(‘Hasten, ye hours’,
ninth movement)
goads us to hurry
with its gigue
rhythm and, at the
same time, urges us
to protect ‘Hennicks
Ruhm und Glücke’
(‘Hennicke’s fame
and fortune’) from
the transience of
everything temporal.
Finally the Elster’s
tenor aria, ‘So wie
ich die Tropfen
zolle’ (‘As I pay
tribute with these
drops’, eleventh
movement), is a
polonaise that
brings to mind
Polish folklore –
which had become
increasingly popular
in central Germany
since the union of
the Saxon Elector’s
family with Polish
Crown in 1697. Bach
must have been
especially fond of
this movement: it
was used as early as
c. 1730, with
different texts, in
cantatas paying
tribute to Duke
Christian of
Sachsen-Weißen fels
and the Leipzig
governor Joachim
Friedrich Graf von
Flemming, and
returned once more
in 1741 in the
wedding cantata ‘O
holder Tag,
erwünschte Zeit’ (‘O
lovely day, o
hoped-for time’, BWV
210).
Soon after its
composition, Bach
reused large parts
of his ‘manorial
music’ for the
church cantata
‘Freue dich, erlöste
Schar’ (‘Rejoice,
redeemed host’, BWV
30). That piece was
probably first
performed at the St
John’s Day
(midsummer) church
service in Leipzig,
on 24th June 1738.
In the sacred
version Bach used
the music of the
outer choral
movements (though
without trumpets and
timpani) and the
first four of the
five arias virtually
unchanged, just
giving them
different words. The
new text, written to
fit the existing
music exactly, was
probably by
Picander, like the
original. Musical
connoisseurs among
the Leipzig church
goers may have been
surprised at the
unusually
fashionable and at
times noticeably
secular tone of
Bach’s music for St
John’s Day. Might
they have suspected
how long a
content-related
journey Bach’s
cantata had
travelled? The
Wiederau cantata
moves entirely in
the here and now,
reflecting the
worldliness of the
lord of the manor
and paying tribute
to the optimism that
focuses on the
favour of Time, Good
Fortune and Fate,
and wastes no time
thinking of a
higher, divine
order. By contrast,
the St John’s Day
cantata is filled
with the ‘redeemed
host’ of believers’
joyful anticipation
of eternal splendour
in ‘Zion’s meadows’.
Ich bin in mir
vergnügt, BWV 204
I am content
in myself
This cantata for
solo soprano,
composed in 1726 or
1727, does not
automatically fit
into the series of
occasional pieces
that Bach wrote for
political, academic
or family events.
Whereas in the case
of most of these
cantatas the reason
for their
composition is
apparent from the
musical sources or
printed texts, and
can usually also be
determined from the
wording of the text,
the present cantata
offers us no such
clues. The text does
not refer to any
external event; nor
is it directed at
any specific person.
It concerns rather a
general theme,
philosophical in the
broadest sense of
the term. This is
what was termed at
the time a ‘moral’
cantata.
Its theme is
identified by Bach
in the title written
in the score:
‘Cantata Von der Ver
gnüg sam keit’
(Cantata of
Contentment). What
the old-fashioned
word ‘contentment’
actually signified
is from today’s
perspective not
entirely clear. The
meaning of the
German word has
changed since the
eigh teenth century.
Whereas today it
tends to bring to
mind happy leisure
activity, in Bach’s
time it signified a
humility, a relaxed
satisfaction with
what life had to
offer. This attitude
is a very popular
theme in the
literature and
philosophy of the
early Enlightenment,
and in the ‘moral
magazines’ that were
widely read among
the bourgeoisie –
creating a new image
of individual
virtue, concerned
with earthly
happiness that is
based on a modest
lifestyle and
prudent acceptance
of the prevailing
circumstances.
The cantata’s text
pays tribute to the
new ideal. But it is
an oddly disparate
patchwork. At its
heart lies the
libretto for a
‘Cantata von der
Zufriedenheit’
(‘Contentment
Cantata’) by the
respected poet and
literary theorist
Christian Friedrich
Hunold, alias
Menantes
(1680–1721), from a
collection printed
in Halle an der
Saale in 1713. This
comprises movements
2–6 and the first
two lines of the
seventh movement
(which in Hunold’s
original libretto
appears as a motto
above the actual
text itself). The
cantata’s opening
recitative, on the
other hand, is based
on a separate
six-strophe poem by
Hunold, entitled
‘Der vergnügte
Mensch’ (The
Contented Man). The
seventh movement
(apart from the
first two lines) and
the eighth are by an
unknown and
evidently not very
proficient poet –
perhaps the person
responsible for
assembling the text.
Bach cannot have
been especially
happy with this text
as a whole. It is
not just that the
theme of ‘con
tentment’ is worn
thin by the length
of the text; in
addition, the
strophic poetry that
dominates the
additions to
Hunold’s original
libretto proved hard
to combine with the
modern recitative
and aria forms. The
Alexandrine verse
pattern popular in
the baroque era,
with its
characteristic
caesura in the
middle of the line,
gives the opening
recitative a certain
short-windedness and
monotony of
phrasing. A similar
small-scale quality
emerges from the
fourfooted verse in
the last recitative
(seventh movement).
But Bach makes the
best of this
movement, and livens
things up by
treating the second
half of the text as
an arioso.
Hunold’s actual
‘Contentment
Cantata’ (movements
2–6) is the work of
an experienced opera
and cantata
librettist – a man
who was by no means
unknown to Bach, who
had set several of
Hunold’s cantata
librettos during his
time in Köthen. (Of
these, the texts for
‘Der Himmel dacht
auf Anhalts Ruhm und
Glück’ [‘Since
heaven cared for
Anhalt’s fame and
bliss’, BWV 66a] and
‘Die Zeit, die Tag
und Jahre macht’
[‘Time, which day
and year doth make’,
BWV 134a] have
survived.) From the
composer’s point of
view, Hunold’s
original libretto
leaves nothing to be
desired. The two
recitatives (third
and fifth movements)
with their freer,
nonschematic verse
structure permit a
varied musical
setting. Moreover
Bach set the first
of them with string
accompaniment, and
has illustrated the
passage where the
text speaks of how
all worldly goods
‘wie Staub
zerfliegen’ (‘blow
away like dust’)
with a striking
musical image: the
tempo changes
suddenly to Presto,
and the vocal line
and instruments
depict the dust
flying with a brief
out burst of
vigorously animated
melodic gestures.
The three aria texts
by Hunold (movements
2, 4 and 6) are all
in the modern da
capo form.
Bach has transformed
them into beautiful
music, and has given
each aria its own
instrumental
profile: the first
with a pair of
oboes, the second
with an agile solo
violin part, and the
third with a solo
flute with
wideranging
coloraturas that
compete with the
solo voice.
At the end of the
cantata there is a
hymn to ‘himmlische
Vergnügsamkeit’
(‘heavenly
contentment’),
performed by all the
participants
together. Here the
flute sometimes
resumes its function
as solo partner of
the soprano, who in
turn is given new
opportunities to
demonstrate her
artistry at its
finest.
The lack of any
reference to the
circumstances of its
origin or to a
dedicatee, together
with the text that
inclines towards
passivity and
intimacy, has
occasionally led to
all kinds of
conjecture that the
cantata might have
been intended by
Bach for personal
use, within his own
family and with Anna
Magdalena Bach as
soloist. This,
however, belongs in
the realm of
sentimental
speculation. For one
thing, the
‘composer-unfriendly’
way the text is put
together surely does
not reflect Bach's
own wishes. Probably
someone else wanted
him to set the text
to music. In any
case, we have the un
known patron to
thank for a secular
solo cantata by Bach
of great beauty and
maturity.
The two cantatas on
this disc conclude a
project that the
Bach Collegium Japan
started in 2004, in
which Bach’s secular
cantatas formed the
basis of numerous
concerts and
recordings. After
the completion of
the ensemble’s
recordings of the
church cantatas in
2013, all of Bach’s
secular cantatas are
now also available
on disc from the BCJ
directed by Masaaki
Suzuki. They offer a
welcome complement
to our image of Bach
the church musician,
and reveal a com
poser who approached
secular music with
the same artistic
integrity and demand
for quality that we
find in his sacred
music. We can still
regret that only a
little more than
twenty works out of
what was originally
a far larger number
of secular cantatas
have survived in
performable
condition. But – as
we have discovered
from our examination
of them in the past
few years – these
works are well worth
per forming,
listening to and
getting to know.
© Klaus
Hofmann 2017
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