Bach, J.S.: Cantatas, Bwv 80 And 147

Soloists

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8550642

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 4891030506428

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BACH, J.S.

Description
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV147 The career of Johann Sebastian Bach, the most illustrious of aprolific musical family, falls neatly into three unequal parts. Born in 1685 in Eisenach,from the age of ten Bach lived and studied music with his elder brother in Ohrdruf, afterthe death of both his parents. After a series of appointments as organist and briefly as acourt musician, he became, in 1708, court organist and chamber musician to Duke WilhelmErnst of Weimar, the elder of the two brothers who jointly ruled the duchy. In 1714 he waspromoted to the position of Konzertmeister to the Duke, but in 1717, after a brief periodof imprisonment for his temerity in seeking to leave the Duke's service, he abandonedWeimar to become Court Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, a position heheld until 1723. From then until his death in 1750 he lived in Leipzig, where he wasThomaskantor, with responsibility for the music of the five principal city churches, in1729 assuming direction of the university collegium musicum, founded by Telemann in 1702. At Weimar Bach had been principallyemployed as an organist, and his compositions of the period include a considerable amountwritten for the instrument on which he was recognised as a virtuoso performer. At Cothen,where Pietist traditions dominated the court, he had no church duties, and was responsiblerather for court music. The period brought the composition of a number of instrumentalworks. The final 27 years of Bach's life brought a variety of preoccupations, and whilehis official employment necessitated the provision of church music, he was able to providemusic for the university collegium musicum and or write or re-arrange a number ofimportant works for the keyboard. The ReformationCantata, Ein feste Burg, BWV 80, was adapted from an earlier cantata, Alles, was von Gott geboren, of which the music hasbeen lost. This was written for performance at Weimar on the Third Sunday of Lent in 1715,with a text by Salomo Franck, secretary, librarian and poet at the court. The new cantatahas been variously dated. Some have suggested as early a date as 31st October 1724 andthere is a surviving autograph fragment from a year earlier, relatively soon after Bach'sassumption of his new duties in Leipzig. Others have dated the complete surviving revisionof the cantata to 1730, the date of celebration of the 200th anniversary of the AugsburgConfession.The cantata, scored for oboes,including oboe d'amore, oboe da caccia and cor anglais, strings and basso continuo, withsoprano, alto, tenor and bass singers, opens with a polyphonic treatment of the firstverse of Martin Luther's well known hymn, Ein festeBurg, using the four voices, with oboes, strings and continuo. The aria thatfollows combines the soprano statement of the second verse, in aversion of the originalchorale melody, with Franck's words sung by the bass. The aria is introduced by the
Tracklisting