(35) Closing Concert
Foto-Copyright:
Henner Fritzsche, Köthen (Anhalt)
Veranstaltungsdetails
Artists Miriam Feuersinger soprano Köthener BachCollektiv Clara Blessing, Johanna Boehm oboeWaleska Sieczkowska, Martin Schneider, Iris Kengen, Ekaterina
Veranstaltungsdetails
Artists
Miriam Feuersinger soprano
Köthener BachCollektiv
Clara Blessing, Johanna Boehm oboe
Waleska Sieczkowska, Martin Schneider, Iris Kengen, Ekaterina Perlina & Cécile Dorchêne violin
Elisabeth Sordia, Christian Goosses viola
Mercedez Ruiz violoncello
Sophia Scheifler double bass
Ambroise Dujat bassoon
Andreas Gilger harpsichord
Midori Seiler und Mayumi Hirasaki violin and conductors
Programme
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantata “Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (BWV 150)
Sinfonia
Cantata “Am Abend des selbigen Sabbats” (BWV 42)
Sinfonia
Cantata “Also hat Gott die Welt geliebet” (BWV 68)
Aria “Mein gläubiges Herze”
Orchestral Suite in D major in the “Köthen version” (BWV 1068)
Ouverture – Air – Gavotte I & II – Bourrée – Gigue
Cantata “Ich bin in mir vergnügt” (BWV 204)
Recitative: Ich bin in mir vergnügt
Aria: Ruhig und in sich zufrieden
Recitative: Ihr Seelen, die ihr außer euch
Aria: Die Schätzbarkeit der weiten Erden
Recitative: Schwer ist es zwar, viel Eitles zu besitzen
Aria: Meine Seele sei vergnügt
Recitative: Ein edler Mensch ist Perlenmuscheln gleich
Aria: Himmlische Vergnügsamkeit
Mass in B minor (BWV 232)
Aria “Laudamus te”
Beschreibung
The cantata “Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (BWV 150) is one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s earliest cantatas. It was composed in 1707 in Mühlhausen, where the 22-year-old Bach had just taken up his position as organist at the Blasius Church. The work is dedicated to Conrad Meckbach, a member of the Mühlhausen town council at the time, possibly as a gift for his 70th birthday. The cantata begins with a short but highly impressive Sinfonia, in which the motifs of the opening chorus are already hinted at.
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For Quasimodogeniti Sunday (the Sunday after Easter) in 1725, Bach composed the cantata “Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats” (BWV 42) in Leipzig. A concertante Sinfonia featuring the full instrumental ensemble serves as the festive introduction to the work. Two oboes and bassoon on one side and the strings on the other alternate very effectively in presenting lively motifs. Bach may have taken this instrumental movement from an earlier concerto that is now lost.
Just a few weeks later, on Whit Monday 1725, Bach likewise composed his cantata “Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt” (BWV 68) in Leipzig. For the arias in this work, Bach used musical models from his Hunting Cantata, which he had already composed in 1713 for Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels. In the case of the soprano aria “Mein gläubiges Herze”, however, he made a fundamental revision by adding an obbligato violoncello piccolo, reshaping the vocal line and expanding the movement with an instrumental ritornello. The result is a magnificent aria of irresistibly infectious joy.
Bach’s four orchestral suites are closely connected with his work as director of the Leipzig Collegium musicum, where they were performed in the ensemble’s weekly concerts during the 1730s. Nevertheless, the works are certainly based on earlier versions that Bach composed either as Kapellmeister at the Köthen court or already as concertmaster in Weimar.
Stylistically, Bach modelled the suites on contemporary French music. The luxurious court culture under the “Sun King”, Louis XIV, exerted enormous influence throughout Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Accordingly, French music—especially the suite form—was regarded as an expression of refined courtly representation and developed into a popular cultural export.
In the Leipzig sources, Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major (BWV 1068) is scored very ceremonially for trumpets, timpani, oboes, strings and basso continuo. It is quite possible that the original version of the work did without trumpets and timpani. This “Köthen version” is performed in today’s concert.
As Kapellmeister at the Köthen court, Johann Sebastian Bach composed primarily instrumental works between 1718 and 1723; his talent for cantata composition was called upon only twice a year, on New Year’s Day and on Prince Leopold’s birthday. Until 1721, the librettos for Bach’s Köthen cantatas were written by the poet Christian Friedrich Hunold, who lived in Halle and also published under the pseudonym Menantes. Bach continued to value Hunold’s poetry even after his time in Köthen. Thus, in 1726 (or 1727), now already Thomaskantor in Leipzig, he used a libretto by the poet, who had since died, for the composition of the cantata “Ich bin in mir vergnügt” (BWV 204). He chose Hunold’s “Cantata von der Zufriedenheit” and supplemented the poetry with two poems of unknown origin (movements Nos. 7 and 8). In character, this poetry belongs to the fashionable category of the “moral cantata”. Using numerous metaphors, the text praises the contentment of a person who is at peace with himself, whom Hunold compares to a “pearl mussel”. The pursuit of earthly wealth, by contrast, is portrayed as contemptible, for “heaven always enters the heart of him who can be rich in poverty.”
In setting the text, Johann Sebastian Bach closely follows the model of the secular Italian cantata, which had become highly popular through compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Caldara and Georg Friedrich Händel. Bach therefore scored the cantata for a single vocal part and a small number of accompanying instruments, dividing the text into four recitatives and four arias. He gives the individual movements a great deal of musical variety: in the first aria, two oboes appear as solo instruments; in the second, the violin; and in the third, a transverse flute. The final aria is then performed by all the instruments together. A particularly effective stylistic device for conveying calm and serenity is the use, in several movements—especially clearly audible in the aria “Meine Seele sei vergnügt”—of sustained notes and pedal points.
Finally, Bach composed the aria “Laudamus te” for the Gloria of an opulently scored Mass, which he dedicated in 1733 to the new Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August II, apparently with the aim of obtaining the title of court composer to the Dresden court. The virtuosic solo violin part was therefore evidently written for Johann Pisendel, the Dresden concertmaster.
Zeit
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€ 32 | 30 | 24 | conc. € 10
ticketsVeranstalter
Kirche St. Jakob
Marktplatz, 06366 Köthen (Anhalt)barrierefreiKirche St. Jakob
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