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Cantatas BMV 45 62 140 192 on CD

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas BWV 62, 45, 192 & 140 The four cantatas assembled on this CD are among Bach's finest creations from the years 1723-1731, the period when he was concerned with providing a "well-regulated church music" for his employers in Leipzig. Two of them: BWV 62, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, from 1724; and BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, from 1731, are closely associated with the Advent season and it's message of promise in the coming of the Saviour. BWV 45, Es is dir Gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist, for the 8th Sunday after Trinity is an extended two-part cantata, which features (in the arioso for bass that begins part 2, to be presented after the sermon) the words of Christ himself, exhorting the faithful to follow the Divine Law, while the text generally warns against "false prophets." BWV 192, Nun danket alle Gott, is a general hymn of praise (with the three verses of the original hymn from the middle of the 1600s presented unaltered and without any addition), perhaps composed for a wedding (the gigue-like finale, which reflects the atmosphere of a wedding feast, underlines this probability). Bach's cantata has been handed down in a secondary source in incomplete form and consists of three numbers directly based on the hymn of the same title. The tenor vocal part is also missing, and has been re-constructed by the editors of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the edition that has been used for this recording. Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62 (Cantata for the 1st Sunday in Advent) This cantata, the second of two works based on Luther's hymn (the other is BWV 61, composed ten years earlier), was composed in 1724 for the first Sunday in Advent. It is based entirely on Martin Luther's hymn of 1524, which is itself modelled on the Latin text, Veni redemptor gentium. Luther's original eight verses are distributed amongst the six sections found in Bach's cantata. The first and last appear literally in the first chorus and the final chorale, while verses 2 and 3 are freely adapted by Bach into the text of the first aria. Luther's verses 4 and 5 are combined into the following bass recitative, while verses 6 and 7 become the bass aria and following recitative for the two upper voices. Bach's opening chorale/chorus is a brilliant combination of Italianate concertante virtuosity and the Lutheran sobriety lent by the austere cantus firmus of the chorale melody, stated by the sopranos, and reinforced by the horn. The instruments are likewise distributed into opposing concertante groups: oboes against strings, while the lower choral voices frequently provide vorspinnung imitation of the main choral melody in diminished note values.