Sunday Bach - 15th Sunday After Trinity

Consider the flowers of the field... (Corn Speedwell)

This week's cantata is pure joy! BWV 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! (Praise God in all the lands!), composed in Leipzig in 1730, is a solo cantata for soprano. This is Bach in one of his more joyous and exuberant moods! Even though Bach's church, the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, used only boys for sopranos, there's no way a young boy could sing this technically advanced soprano part. It's been suggested that a female singer was the intended artist, and it's even been speculated that he wrote it for his wife, Anna Magdalena, to sing. Here's what Simon Crouch had to say about this most joyful solo cantata:

Pow!! Imagine dragging yourself to church early in the morning, eyes heavy with sleep, mind full of cotton-wool and being hit with this! And pity the poor boy (?) who had to sing it! (Do refer, though, to the discussion of BWV 51 in Robert Marshall's essay Bach the Progressive in his excellent book The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He suggests that Bach may have written the soprano part for Faustina Bordoni, the "leading prima donna of her age" at the Dresden court opera (and married, incidentally, to J.A. Hasse, the exceedingly succesful Dresden composer), or possibly even for Giovanni Bindi, a castrato at Dresden). These days this work is always performed by a female soprano and it had better be a good one too!

The spectacular and florid opening movement leads, after an intervening recitative, into the gentler second aria which rather alarmingly brings to mind a more recent tune: Favourite things from The Sound of Music! The soprano then sings the wonderful chorale melody Sei Lob und Preis mit ehren with an elaborate instrumental accompaniment. This leads without a break into a final virtuoso Alleluia.

This beautiful solo cantata must be rated among the greats of the cantatas and has certainly been a favourite with audiences and record companies. There are many fine recordings available. It's a brilliant, joyous exaltation in praise of God.

Copyright © 1995 & 1997, Simon Crouch.

Today's video is of a beautiful performance from February of 2011 by the Real Filharmonia de Galicia under the direction of Helmuth Rilling, featuring the exquisite voice of soprano Lenneke Ruiten. Enjoy!  

Photo © 2014 by A. Roy Hilbinger