Something for a Friday: All of Bach

[vinteuil]

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... many many thanks, Hitch, for continuing to download these marvels.

They provide real sustenance, for which I am so grateful

[oddoneout]

I don't know if this has been posted already but it may be of interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IZ0uMgeVCM

[Hitch]

vinteuil I'm glad you enjoy the posts. The All of Bach project is one of the unequivocally good things in life.

oddoneout Many thanks.

[Hitch]

The Netherlands Bach Society's New Artistic Leader: Johanna Soller

"Johanna Soller has been appointed as artistic leader of the Netherlands Bach Society starting May 1. She succeeds Shunske Sato, who held that position until June 2023. Johanna Soller is the seventh artistic leader in our ensemble's 104-year history." More information here.

[Hitch]

Bach - Cantata Himmelskönig, sei willkommen BWV 182

Netherlands Bach Society
Johanna Soller, organ and direction
Kristen Witmer, soprano
Alex Potter, alto
Guy Cutting, tenor
Matthias Winckhler, bass

Recorded for the project All of Bach on June 28th 2024 at Oude Kerk Charlois, Rotterdam.

This recording was initiated by social fund MWH4impact and organised specially for residents of Rotterdam-Zuid. MWH4impact aims to achieve social and cultural impact and joins the Netherlands Bach Society in their mission Bach for All.

0:00 Sonata
2:13 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen (Chor)
5:31 Siehe, ich komme (Rezitativ)
6:08 Starkes Lieben (Arie)
8:36 Leget euch dem Heiland unter (Arie)
16:10 Jesu, laß durch Wohl und Weh (Arie)
19:25 Jesu, deine Passion (Chor)
22:31 So lasset uns gehen (Chor)

From the YouTube summary:

The festive cantata Himmelskönig, sei willkommen – recorded here for All of Bach with Johanna Soller – is a hit. And that was just what Bach intended it to be. He wrote the cantata on the occasion of Palm Sunday as well as the Feast of the Annunciation, and to impress the Weimar court, where he was that day making the transition from organist to concertmaster. On this double festive day Bach pulls out all stops: four singing parts, solos for recorder and himself (!) on violin, two violas, a partly independent cello part, and continuo for organ and double bass.

From the All of Bach website:

A royal entrance

Bach marks his debut as a concertmaster with an exceptional cantata.

25 March 1714; Palm Sunday as well as the Feast of the Annunciation. The painted wooden ceiling of the ‘Himmelsburg’, the court chapel in Weimar, is open and daylight streams in through the skylights. Twelve metres above the monumental altar, half hidden on the cosy organ balcony, a 29-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach glances down on the heads of the ducal court. Most probably with a mix of nerves and self-confidence, as today he is finally making the transition from organist to concertmaster. Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, the first of his monthly cantatas, had to be – and would be – a hit.

Later, in Leipzig, Bach was able to use more musicians – as for the revivals of BWV 182 in 1724 and 1728 – but in Weimar the space was simply too limited. Yet on this double holy day, all the stops were pulled out: four singing parts, solos for recorder and himself (!) on violin, two violas, a partly independent cello part, and continuo for organ and double bass. The gospel reading for the day made its own contribution: riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, Jesus was received as a king by his disciples, who are unaware that less than a week later he would die on the cross. (Regality also dominates the Feast of the Annunciation, which for Luther revolved more around Jesus as the king of heaven than around his mother.)

In three arias, the cantata zooms in on the question of how the listener can prepare for the promised eternal life. After a brief quote from Psalm 40, interpreted as Jesus’ own words, the bass sings about the ‘starkes Lieben’ that drove the Redeemer to sacrifice himself for mankind. The alto then asks everyone to lay their heart at the feet of Jesus and wear their faith like an ‘unbeflecktes Kleid’. Finally, the tenor already cites the coming ‘Kreuzige’ and calls on people to remain true to the banner of Christ’s cross, even in times of hardship.

Around this sermonising core, Bach writes four beautifully balanced tutti sections. First come a sonata and an opening chorus, which can be taken together as a French overture: a stately (instrumental) beginning with dotted rhythms, followed by a flowing fugue, which Bach makes extra long in ABA form. After the arias, but not at the end as was customary later on, we hear a verse from the much-used chorale text ‘Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod’ by Paul Stockmann, from 1633. Just as in ‘O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig’ from the St Matthew Passion, for example, the three expressive lower voices always prepare for the entrance of the soprano, who spans the chorale melody above the musical web in long notes. As a counterpart to the impressive opening, Bach guides the listener in a cheerful closing chorus towards the ‘Salem der Freude’, a heavenly Jerusalem. Hear how it is always the bass who starts off ‘Er gehet voran’; an old Baroque tradition, whereby this voice represents Jesus himself.

[Hitch]

Bach - Chorale O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn BWV 1084

Netherlands Bach Society
Monica Monteiro, soprano
Bernadett Nagy, alto
Immo Schröder, tenor
Bram Trouwborst, bass

Recorded for the project All of Bach on May 5th 2024 at Sint-Gertrudiskerk, Bergen op Zoom.

From the YouTube summary:

This chorale – recorded here for All of Bach with singers of the Netherlands Bach Society – Bach rewrote when he recorded the work again in Leipzig. Instead of a fairly simple harmonisation, he wrote a new version with harmonic and rhythmic variation. What stands out: it seems that notes are missing from several chords. This is particularly striking in the interim final chords without a third (to the words ‘Gottes Sohn’, ‘meiden’ and ‘arm und schwach’). These ‘open’ chords without a major or minor third, and so without ‘timbre’, have a rather archaic sound.

From the All of Bach website:

Missing thirds

A chorale that Bach rewrote when he performed the work again in Leipzig.

Naturally, All of Bach revolves around Bach as a composer, but of course he also conducted other people’s music. On Good Friday 1726 – one year before he presented his own St Matthew Passion – Bach conducted a performance of the St Mark Passion by Reinhard Keiser. He had already performed the work on a previous occasion in Weimar.

When Bach performed Keiser’s Passion again in Leipzig, he made a few alterations here and there. One change was the replacement of the earlier setting of the chorale O hilf Christe, Gottes Sohn. Instead of a fairly simple harmonisation, he wrote a new version with harmonic and rhythmic variation. The reason for this new version was probably a practical one, as the chorale melody used in Leipzig was slightly different to the one used in Weimar.

At first sight, Bach’s new four-part version is indistinguishable from the many other four-part chorale harmonisations he wrote. But on closer listening, you start to notice something: it seems that notes are missing from several chords. This is particularly striking in the interim final chords without a third (to the words ‘Gottes Sohn’, ‘meiden’ and ‘arm und schwach’). These ‘open’ chords without a major or minor third, and so without ‘timbre’, have a rather archaic sound.

This may have been a deliberate choice, but there’s probably something else going on here. Keizer’s Passion was written for a five-part group of strings. In Weimar, both the first and second violins double the soprano in O hilf Christe, Gottes Sohn. The instrumental parts for the performance in 1726 have not survived, but it seems likely that when Bach wrote a new version of the chorale he gave an independent part to the first violins. When the violin part was lost, so were the thirds.

[Hitch]

Bach - Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben BWV 483

Daniel Johannsen, tenor
Matthias Havinga, organ
Instrument: Henrick Bader, 1639/1643

Recorded for the project All of Bach on May 29th 2024 at Walburgiskerk, Zutphen.

From the YouTube summary:

Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? – recorded here for All of Bach with tenor Daniel Johannsen and organist Matthias Havinga – was one of the main hymns in Leipzig’s churches in the seventeenth century. Bach used the text (by Caspar Neumann) and the melody (by Daniel Vetter) as a basis for one of his most beautiful cantatas (BWV 8) ánd this Schemelli-song from 1736.

From the All of Bach website:

To be or not to be

Contemplating death, almost like Hamlet with the skull.

‘Dearest God, when will I die?’ Sometimes we feel the need to ask this question, even when in our times life-threatening hazards are more effectively kept at bay than in any other period of human history. How different the situation was in Bach’s time. The composer had to bury ten of his twenty children, and his first wife Maria Barbara died when he was on a long journey with his sovereign Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen, so that upon his return he could do no more than visit her grave.

Death was omnipresent during the Baroque period. When Caspar Neumann, author of the poem of this Schemelli song, was born in Breslau, the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) had come to an end. Approximately a third of Germany’s population perished during these three decades. Neumann, not only a renowned theologian and writer but also a scientist researching demography and statistics, could have provided a long list of casualties from his own family.

Neumann’s poems and prayers remained in print for many decades, and Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? was one of the main hymns in Leipzig’s churches. Thus, Bach wrote one of his most beautiful cantatas based on it (BWV 8, in September 1724). He must have been especially fond of the beautiful melody by his older colleague and Leipzig contemporary, Daniel Vetter (also born in Breslau), since he used this tune unaltered in both the cantata and this Schemelli song from 1736.

‘Hilf, dass ich ein ehrlich Grab neben frommen Christen hab’ (Help me to have an honest grave next to pious Christians). We cannot contemplate these words without bearing in mind that Bach’s own grave on Leipzig’s Johanniskirchhof was forgotten (and definitely not well maintained) for almost two centuries, until in 1950 his remains were eventually reburied in the Thomaskirche. It is therefore only fitting that today all the musicians performing from the organ loft of the Thomaskirche look down upon this honorary grave, situated in front of the altar.

Musicalisches Gesang-Buch G.C. Schemelli

In the eighteenth century, sacred songbooks for private use were an important aid in simple, domestic devotion. For example, no fewer than 17 editions of Johann Freylinghausen’s Geistreiches Gesangbuch were published between 1704 and 1734. Two years later, pietist Georg Christian Schemmel, alias Schemelli, launched his own songbook, containing no fewer than 954 songs, 69 of which included melody, text incipit and figured bass. In order to outdo the competition, he involved probably the most famous music consultant of all time, who happened to be his son’s music teacher: Bach. Following intensive research, only three of the 21 original melodies in the collection (BWV 439-509) can be attributed with certainty to the cantor at the Thomasschule: BWV 452, 478 and 505. The others are accompaniments, revisions and improvements. Bach’s precise role in Schemelli’s Gesangbuch will probably always remain a mystery.