Bach Complete Cantatas Vol. 14

The cantatas in this fourteenth series fall into four unequal groups: BWV 26, 123,125 and 178 form part of the second yearly cycle of Leipzig church cantatas, which was abruptly broken off in March 1725.The chorale cantatas - based on strophes of church Lieder or church Lieder paraphrased into recitatives and arias - lent the cycle its distinct character. We do not know any tangible reason for the abrupt break-off, but we may assume that it is connected to the death of the author of Bach's texts, Andreas Stübel, deputy headmaster of the Thomasschule, who is presumed to have died on 31 January 1725.For evidently the composer had at his disposal only texts up to the Marian Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1725 (BWV 1).While the texts for BWV 6 and 42 are the work of an unknown poet, in Cantatas BWV 74,68 and 103 Bach set texts by the Leipzig poet Mariane von Ziegler, who evidently filled the gap left by the poet of the chorale cantatas. Finally, BWV 1045 is a sinfonia of a cantata dating from the mid-1740s, the other movements of which have not survived.

The present set is the debut of Ton Koopman on the Challenge Classics label and the re-start of the series of complete cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Volume 13 in this CD presentation contains the third series of chorale cantatas from the second annual cycle Bach composed for Leipzig. Music criticism in the modern sense did not exist in the eighteenth century, so we do not really know anything about how the public responded to Bach's music. One of the few comments we have is in a newspaper report of Bach's first appearance in the capacity of Cantor of St Thomas's, presenting a cantata on 30 May 1723,but we learn only that it was received with approbation, even applause.

The third volume of our complete recording of Bach's cantatas comprises works drawn from three different categories. First comes a group of seven sacred cantatas from the years 1714-17, the majority of which were written for the Weimar Schloßkirche. Taken together with the cantatas contained in Volumes 1 and 2,these seven works - Cantatas 54,63,155, 161,162,163 and 165 - form the group of 23 sacred cantatas that have survived complete from the years leading up to the end of Bach's term of office as Konzertmeister to the Weimar court in 1717.

The cantatas of volume 20 combine the concluding items from the "Picander" year of 1728-29 with a series of cantatas from the first half of the 1730s. A special feature is the inclusion of a hitherto completely unknown sacred work from Bach’s Weimar period, discovered as recently as May 2005 by Michael Maul (who works in the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig) in the Herzogin Anna Amalia Library, Weimar. This aria of praise dating from 1713, preserved in a newly discovered original source and now assigned the BWV number 1127, supplements Bach’s Weimar cantatas in a felicitous manner. Above all it is the first new work to add to Bach’s vocal output for 70 years, since the discovery of the cantata fragment “Bekennen will ich seinen Namen”, BWV 200.

The cantatas in this sixteenth volume are all from the third cycle of Bach's Leipzig cantatas. This yearly cycle began on the First Sunday after Trinity (3 June) 1725 and extended over a period of about three years - unlike the two preceding cycles of 1723-24 and 1724-25. Bach's rhythm of composition had slowed down markedly in the middle of 1725. It is also significant that from February to September 1726 he performed a long series of cantatas by his cousin Johann Ludwig Bach (1677-1731), Kapellmeister at the ducal court of Meiningen. But even if the proportion of original compositions declined markedly, these include a series of particularly accomplished and extended works, such as Cantatas BWV 43, 39, 170 and 102. Musically, Bach's third yearly cycle of cantatas is distinguishable by the fact that they do not begin with large-scale instrumental symphonies, nor do they have unusually extended or richly scored opening movements.

In the autumn of 1713, Bach was invited to apply for the post of organist and music director at the Marktkirche in Halle in succession to Handel's teacher, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Bach was honoured to accept the invitation and in doing so made it clear that he was keen to extend his activities. Under Zachow, who had created a respectable repertory of sacred works of the most varied genres, including a large number of church cantatas, music in Halle had flourished and reached a level that offered Bach an area of responsibility that he evidently found attractive.

The fifth volume of our complete recording of Bach’s cantatas completes the series of secular cantatas from the composer’s years in Leipzig. Seven works are involved here, spanning a period from 1725 to 1742, the year of Bach’s final secular cantata, BWV 212. Of Bach’s occasional compositions, some fifty secular pieces have survived, yet these represent no more than a fraction of what must once have existed. Indeed, there is no other group of works by the composer that has suffered such great – and regrettable – losses. In the case of more than half of the works that are known to have existed, only the words, but not the music, survived. Quite how many pieces may have disappeared without leaving any trace whatsoever is impossible to say.

The ninth volume of this complete recording of Bach’s cantatas continues the series of cantatas from the first Leipzig cycle. Cantata 173a is the sole exception: a secular cantata composed by Bach at Cöthen, it was reworked as a church cantata (BWV 173) for the first Leipzig cycle and is included in Volume 7 (CD 3). BWV 66 is also based on an original work from Bach’s Cöthen period.

The cantatas in this fifteenth volume belong mostly to the transitional period between the second and the third yearly cycle of cantatas, i.e. the spring of 1725. BWV 3 is part of the series of chorale cantatas that give the second yearly cycle its special character, whereas BWV 28, 110, 146 and 168 already belong to the third yearly cycle. However, cantatas BWV 85, 87, 108, 128, 175, 176 and 183, mostly compositions on texts by Mariane von Ziegler, bring the second yearly cycle to its conclusion. Bach had taken up his position as Kantor of St Thomas's, Leipzig, at the end of May 1723 and so begun his regular performances of cantatas on the First Sunday after Trinity - in other words, in the middle of the church year.

This twenty-second and last volume of cantata recordings contains two of Bach's latest cantatas (BWV 30 and 80), including the secular model for BWV 30 and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's arrangement of two movements from BWV 80 dating from after 1750. Also included are the four Kyrie-Gloria masses of the late 1730s; they are very closely associated with the cantata repertoire of the 1720s. These masses are based on selected movements of cantatas dating from the period 1723-6; after an interval of ten or so years Bach reworked them, in most cases very thoroughly. Renowned Bach specialist Ton Koopman (1944) was awarded the 2006 Bach Medal by the city of Leipzig 05 Jun 2006, the final day of this year's annual Leipzig Bach Festival.