Sunday Bach - Quinquagesima

Bach wrote four cantatas for Quinquagesima Sunday, called Estomihi in his time, the last Sunday before Lent. As concerted music was banned during Lent in Leipzig, Bach seems to have written some of his best work for that Sunday to compensate for the next four weeks without music. And today's cantata is especially significant - BWV 23, Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sons (Thou true God and son of David, Leipzig 1723).  It's one of the pieces he wrote to audition for the job of cantor in Leipzig, so you know he'd put forward something pretty magnificent for the judges! Here's the late Craig Smith of Emmanuel Music on this excellent cantata:

The Cantata BWV 23 was one of the two works submitted by Bach in his application for the cantor's job at Leipzig. The other work, cantata BWV 22, is light and not particularly intellectually demanding. BWV 23 is one of the densest and greatest of all the cantatas. The duality of Christ's human and divine identity is characterized by the two oboes d'amore and the two high voices. The thorny, even awkward juxtaposition of triple and duple meters in the opening duet is a brilliant portrayal of the difficulty of the human and the divine inhabiting one body. The tenor recitative is accompanied by strings. Laid on top of it is the modal chorale tune "Christe du Lamm Gottes." The large chorus that follows is in a rondo character. The chorus alternates with a tenor-bass duet. The tenor and bass give the effect of balancing the soprano and alto that opened the cantata. The cantata ends with one of Bach's greatest and profoundest chorale fantasias, a setting of the German Agnus Dei. The chorale begins with some of the weightiest and most ponderous music that Bach ever composed. One is almost unaware how the guilt is lifted throughout the movement which ends with a lightness and transparency never anticipated by the opening.

© Craig Smith

Today's performance is from a 2007 Harmonia Mundi France recording by the Collegium Vocale Gent under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Enjoy!

 

Photo © 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger