Category Archives: Cantatas

Family stories and more “Vision Bach” – BWV 179 and 199 for Trinity 11

19 Wednesday Aug 2026

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Daniel Johannsen during a Vision Bach concert in 2024, © Bach Akademie Stuttgart/Holger Schneider

For this past Sunday, the 11th after Trinity, I would love to share Bach Akademie Stuttgart’s recording of Cantata 179 Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei and Cantata 199 Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut. 303 years ago, these two cantatas were performed during the same church service in Leipzig, Cantata 179 before the sermon, and Cantata 199 after the sermon. The absolute highlight of this recording for me is tenor Daniel Johannsen’s fabulous singing throughout Cantata 179, not just in his two solo movements, but also in the choruses. In addition, soprano Miriam Feuersinger’s moving rendition of solo cantata 199 on this recording is not to be missed. Keep reading to find out why this cantata is Feuersinger’s personal favorite.

Read more about the Vision Bach project and this Volume 3 album in last week’s post. You can purchase this album on Amazon or Arkiv Music if you are in the USA, or on jpc if you are in Europe. Please consider purchasing to support the artists! Also available on Spotify and YouTube.

Spotlight on tenor Daniel Johannsen

For Cantata 179 Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, find the score here, and the German text with English translations here.

In my previous posts about this cantata, I mostly wrote about the stunning fugue in the opening chorus. Learn all about it in my posts from 2016 and 2023. But today’s spotlight is on tenor Daniel Johannsen, who illustrates the text in the tenor recitative and aria like no other.

Johannsen’s father was a Protestant pastor and his mother was a religion teacher, so from a very young age, he was familiar with the power of telling a story. He has degrees in both vocal performance and church music, and I believe this all contributes to his exceptional communication of the texts in Bach’s sacred music.

My aunt and Daniel Johannsen outside the Thomaskirche

Over the past fifteen years or so, Johannsen has recorded a great number of Bach’s hymns, cantatas, and oratorios with The Netherlands Bach Society , the J.S. Bach Foundation, and Bach Akademie Stuttgart. The Bach cantata YouTube boom came too late for my mother, who passed away in 2010, but my mother’s oldest sister, also a great Bach fan, as well as a theologian and retired minister, is an avid viewer of those performances. This past June I had the great fortune to visit Bachfest Leipzig together with her. We got to hear Daniel Johannsen sing three times in the Thomaskirche. After the first concert, with the J.S. Bach Foundation under the direction of Rudolf Lutz, my aunt said: “it doesn’t matter that we sit with our back to the performers here, because I know his voice so well from all the videos, I see him in my mind when I hear him sing.” Lutz’s concerts moved her to tears, especially because of the soloists’ communication of the texts. How lucky we were that Daniel took the time after his last Bachfest concert to pose for a photo with my aunt.

Rademann and Feuersinger on the couch with Maul and Schrammek

Miriam Feuersinger, Michael Maul, Bernhard Schrammek
Rudolf Lutz, Miriam Feuersinger, Hans-Christoph Rademann

Another reason why these two cantatas are special to me this summer is because of the Maul und Schrammek talk show I attended during Bachfest Leipzig. Miriam Feuersinger was the first guest on Michael Maul’s and Berhnard Schrammek’s couch, and when they asked her what her favorite Bach cantata is, she didn’t have to think twice: it’s Cantata 199 Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut. She explained that this cantata has been a great help to her during a difficult time in her life, and she loves the composition’s “theologische Aussagekraft” (theological expressiveness, theological meaning). 

For Cantata 199 Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, find the score here, and the German text with English translations here.

Ach, Hans-Christoph, mach wie immer: mach was Schönes!


Later, during that same talk show, when Lutz and Rademann had joined Feuersinger on the couch, Rademann told a story that made me laugh. He recounted a time he felt somewhat stuck: he no longer knew how to direct the opening chorus of Cantata 179, because of the negation in the first line of the text. He telephoned Jos van Veldhoven (artistic director of the Netherlands Bach Society from 1983 to 2018) to ask him for advice. Jos van Veldhoven’s responded with a simple solution: “Ach, Hans-Christoph, mach wie immer: mach was Schönes!” (“Oh, Hans-Christoph, just do what you always do: make it beautiful!”).

© Wieneke Gorter, August 19, 2026.

Almost Unbearable, It’s that Good: Hannes Rux-Brachtendorf and Matthias Winckhler in BWV 46 on Rademann’s Vision Bach, Volume 3.

08 Saturday Aug 2026

Posted by in 1723 Trinity season special series, Cantatas, Leipzig, Trinity

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Oh, how I wish I could have been there in person, in July 2023! At the Schlosskirche (Palace Church) of the Ludwigsburg Palace in Germany, looking up at this ceiling painting by Carlo Carlone, and hearing Bach’s incredible cantatas 105 and 46 performed by the Gaechinger Cantorey under the direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann.

Alas, that summer I had other things on my mind, and was pretty late catching on to Rademann’s Vision Bach, a project to record all Bach’s cantatas from his first year in Leipzig (1723/1724), in the order in which Bach wrote them. So I missed most of those live concerts, but I managed to attend one in February 2024, went to this ensemble’s St. Matthew Passion in Hamburg in March 2025, and became a fan. This June, I had the great fortune to hear two of their performances at Bachfest Leipzig. There, everyone’s energy, but especially the quality of the orchestra blew me away. I was not alone in this, festival director Michael Maul complimented the orchestra too the next day during the talkshow he co-hosted.

Hans-Christoph Rademann, photo by Marco Borggreve

Rademann took over the Bach Akademie Stuttgart and the Gaechinger Cantorey from Helmut Rilling in 2013, and immediately replaced the orchestra with a period instrument ensemble. During the first three years, this happened through collaborations with Freiburger Barockorchester and Akademie Alte Musik Berlin. In 2016 Rademann founded the Bach Akademie Stuttgart’s own orchestra, also under the name Gaechinger Cantorey. And I feel you can tell that this orchestra is only 10 years young.

All 10 Volumes of Vision Bach are out now. Please scroll down on this website by Bachakademie Stuttgart to order directly from the publisher if you are in the European Union. Or visit this website, with links to order from Amazon if you are in the USA, and links for YouTube. I hope to discuss more of these Vision Bach recordings over the coming weeks and months.

For this Sunday, the 10th after Trinity, Bach wrote Cantata 46, Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz sei in 1723. It appears on Vision Bach, Volume 3. You can purchase this on Amazon or Arkiv Music if you are in the USA, or on jpc if you are in Europe. Please consider purchasing, to support the artists! Also available on Spotify and YouTube.

Find the score here, and the German text with English translations here.

The recording of Cantata 46 features gorgeous singing by alto Elvira Bill and tenor Benedikt Kristjánsson, and the beautiful sound of Anneke Scott’s corno da tirarsi* in the opening chorus and closing chorale. But the absolute best is the bass aria.

Hannes Rux-Brachtendorf
Matthias Winckhler

We all know Bach’s illustration of thunder and lightning from his St. Matthew Passion, but he does it very well too in this apocalyptic bass aria. And this performance by Baroque trumpet player Hannes Rux-Brachtendorf and bass Matthias Winckhler (yes, that’s really five consonants in a row in the middle of his last name) is unrivaled. Especially how together they illustrate the word “unerträglich” (unbearable) in the third line of the text, it is indeed almost unbearable, it is that good! I have never heard those harmonic crunches so well done on any other recording.

Dein Wetter zog sich auf von weiten,
Doch dessen Strahl bricht endlich ein
Und muss dir unerträglich sein,
Da überhäufte Sünden
Der Rache Blitz entzünden
Und dir den Untergang bereiten.

Your tempest brewed from afar,
Yet at long last its flash breaks forth
And must be unbearable to you,
As heaped-up sins
Set aflame the lightning of vengeance
And bring about your downfall.**

Hannes Rux-Brachtendorf plays with fabulous technique and gorgeous phrasing. His playing was impressive too during Bachfest Leipzig in Cantata 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen. And Matthias Winckhler — ahhhhh, he has it all, the beautiful voice, the colors, the core in the sound. And he can do it all, sing all the notes, do the colloraturas, tell the story, AND move me. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, because I observe a growing number of Lied and opera engagements on his calendar, so we might hear him less often in Bach cantatas.

Anneke Scott with corno da tirarasi* in the Palace church in Ludwigsburg – photo by Holger Schneider.

When listening to this Volume 3 of Vision Bach, don’t miss the cantata this album opens with: Cantata 105 Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht for the ninth Sunday after Trinity (last week). Find the text for that cantata here. The recording features gorgeous singing by the one and only Miriam Feuersinger in the soprano aria “Wie zittern und wanken;” a five star performance by horn player Anneke Scott (again on corno da tirarsi*) and tenor Benedikt Kristjánsson in “Kann ich nur Jesum mir zum Freunde machen;” and last but not least, Matthias Winckhler in the arioso “Wohl aber dem, der seinen Bürgen weiss.” This movement always makes me think of the “Am abend da es kühle war” arioso from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and it moves me to tears.

Wieneke Gorter, © 2026.

*For more information on Anneke Scott and the corno da tirarsi, please read my blog post from 2023 here.

**English translation by Michael Marissen & Daniel R. Melamed, from https://bachcantatatexts.org/

Bachfest Leipzig 2025

09 Wednesday Jul 2025

Posted by in Cantatas, Leipzig, Travel

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Romanus-Haus in Leipzig, the house where poet Christiane Mariane von Ziegler held salons in the 1720s and 1730s.

I visited Bachfest Leipzig again this year, from Tuesday evening, June 17, through Sunday, June 22, attending eight concerts in six days. Read my highlights below, and please subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss future posts. I joined a festival trip to Merseburg, took walks, caught up with friends from all over the world, and met some new fellow Bach lovers. For me, the camaraderie has almost become a more important reason to return each year than the concerts.

That said, next year’s cantata programming is not to be missed, with Herreweghe AND Lutz AND Rademann, so if you would like to attend you should probably get organized – my tips for that at the end of this post.

Summer in Leipzig

June is the perfect time of year in this city. People are out on café terraces everywhere, and walking in the streets. Then there’s the summer green: entire rose bushes for sale on the street in the middle of the center, and linden trees in bloom wherever you go. The scent of linden delights me, and I learned something new about them this year, thanks to our Bachfest tour guide Anna-Sylvia Goldammer on the organ trip to Merseburg: Leipzig has apparently always been full of linden trees! The latin word for Leipzig, Lipsi, was derived from the Slavic word for linden tree, lipa. Most of downtown, inside the ring, is car-free, with only taxis and necessary vehicles allowed in. This makes it feel safe and, dare I say it, more walkable than Amsterdam.

The free performances can be the most meaningful

Inspired by a seatmate on the trip to Köthen last year, I attended more of the free or almost-free performances this year. You can still fully enjoy the camaraderie with other Bach fans and hear beautiful music without spending a fortune. There are no assigned seats for the church services, so as long as you line up early, you can enjoy the best view for free.

This year I had missed the free performances on the market square, but on Saturday morning, June 21, I was so lucky to attend an unforgettable, absolutely exquisite rendition of the duet from Cantata 79 Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild by soprano Miriam Feuersinger and baritone Tobias Berndt during the “Mette” (morning service) in the Nikolaikirche. The Sunday morning service in the Thomaskirche was special too. The service was a reconstruction of what a church service in Bach’s time would have been like (I could write an entire blog post about that!), I got to hear Johannes Lang play the organ, Tomáš Král sing the bass arias in Cantata 20 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, and tenor Patrick Grahl sing not only the tenor aria in that cantata but also the cantor-bits in the service as well as the reading from the New Testament (yes this was sung, beautiful!). But I also happened to sit and sing (in the congregational singing) next to the 80-year-old father of choir director Maria Küstner. With great determination he had climbed all the stairs to the balcony, even though he was walking with a cane. When after the service I thanked him for his clear and confident singing, he told me that decades ago, on frequent car trips between Leipzig and Berlin, he would sing Luther’s “Wir glauben all an einen Gott” (one of the Lutheran chorales we had just sung in the service) to keep himself and the family awake. I forgot to ask him if this was still during GDR time, but it might very well have been.

Catching up with David Chin

This year I also finally had the opportunity to have lunch with David Chin, director of Bachfest Malaysia and creator of the excellent documentary Encountering Bach which I have referenced already a few times on this blog. We started conversations on Facebook during the Covid pandemic after David published his first episodes of the documentary, then met in person at the Thüringer Bachwochen in 2022, but only managed to say a few quick hellos at last year’s Bachfest. So grateful it worked out to talk this year!

Concert highlights: Alex Potter and David de Winter

Alex Potter in the Nikolaikirche on June 17. Photo courtesy of Sascha Wolff.

I had only just arrived to Leipzig on Tuesday June 17. I had not even unpacked yet, but I had a chance to hear “Missa Miniatura,” Elina Albach’s adaptation of Bach’s Mass in B Minor again, and I am a big fan of that production. So I ate a quick dinner and made it to the Nikolaikirche just in time. Alex Potter’s stunning rendition of the Agnus Dei at this concert was definitely a highlight of this Bachfest for me. In order to have a bit more acoustic, he had climbed up a few steps so he stood directly under an arch in the Nikolaikirche. Thanks to Sascha Wolff for capturing that moment on photo. After this aria I felt “we can now all die happily.” The other aria that transported me to a similar state of bliss was David de Winter’s “Der Ewigkeit saphirnes Haus” from Cantata 198 Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl with Solomon’s Knot on Friday, June 20, in the Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche. I had never heard this aria sung so beautifully.

Bach’s “50 best cantatas” by Lutz, Herrewege, and Rademann, Vox Luminis, Koopman, and Gardiner in 2026 – how to get organized

Disclaimer: I’m not getting paid to write this. Below is a reflection of my personal opinion and personal interpretation of the information that is available at the time of writing this blog post. I do not accept responsibility if your experience is different. I just thought it might be helpful to curate the information from various websites for you.

Anyone reading this who has visited Bachfest in the last few years: please feel free to add your own advice in the comments. Thank you!

Next year’s cantata programming at the festival is going to be a hit parade of the “50 best cantatas” (chosen by the audience, read more about the how and why in this interview with festival director Michael Maul by blogger Rick Fulkner) with two concerts each by Herreweghe, Lutz, Koopman, Gardiner, Rademann, and Vox Luminis. Here are my tips to get organized:

If you already know you want to attend all 12 cantata concerts (= two concerts per day, six days in a row, of two to three cantatas each, each cantata preceded by a motet by Schütz or Schein), you can purchase your “packet” here. You’ll go through two seat selection screens, one to select your seat for the Thomaskirche (the screen doesn’t specify this, but it is the seatmap that has the stage at the bottom, and “Südempore” on the right), and, once you have clicked the checkout button, another one for the Nikolaikirche (not specified either, but this is the map that has the stage at the top and 1. Empore and 2. Empore).

Please note for Thomaskirche:

  • For concerts with choir and orchestra, the performers are located on the organ loft of the Sauer-organ (the bottom of the seating map).
  • The majority of the pews downstairs, where the sound is likely best, have their backs to the performers. Many people don’t mind this, but it surprised me. Thus, if it is important for you to see the performers, choose a premium seat (yellow on the map) on one of the balconies, where the sound is wonderful too.
  • Some seats on the Empore (balconies) have partially blocked views of the performers due to large pillars, even the premium seats are not all equal, so don’t get your hopes up too much.

Please note for Nikolaikirche:

The sound is good everywhere in the church, but most seats on the balconies have limited leg space, so keep that in mind if you are tall, since these cantata concerts will be pretty long. The Bach Museum shop sells cute portable cushions for making your church pew seat more comfortable, see picture on the left, pillow folded in half. I also saw people who traveled with inflatable pillows.

If you want to pick and choose, only want to go to one concert per day, or don’t want to commit to spending a thousand euros just yet, mark your calendar:

  • November 11, 2025: Advance sales start for Patrons of the Bachfest/Bach-Archiv Leipzig and for members of the Neue Bachgesellschaft.
    • Become a patron of the Bachfest here (access to VIP seating for three concerts or more, depending on level of giving).
    • Become a member of the Neue Bachgesellschaft here (no special seating, just the earlier access to ticket sales).
  • November 25, 2025: Regular ticket sales start.

Where to stay: People I met had good experiences at Innside (hotel directly across the ring from the Thomaskirche, in a nice neighborhood), Motel One (close to the Nikolaikirche), and Adina Apartment Hotel (apartments close to the Nikolaikirche, 24-hour reception, pool, restaurant, bar). I myself stayed in Apartmenthotel Quartier M. which I loved because of the excellent organic supermarket on the ground floor of the same building, the good price, and the short walking distance to the Thomaskirche.

Copyright Wieneke Gorter, July 9, 2025.

Bach Cantatas for Christmas – 1724 and 1734 editions

23 Monday Dec 2024

Posted by in Cantatas, Chorale cantatas 1724/1725, Christmas, Epiphany, Leipzig

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Merry Christmas! Below are my recommendations for recordings of Bach’s chorale cantatas for the Christmas season, written in 1724/1725, as well as a link to the video of this year’s wonderful live performance by the Netherlands Bach Society of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, written in 1734/1735. Before I get to that, I wanted to share a personal story. (If you want to “jump to the recipe,” just scroll down three paragraphs to the next header).

As regular readers of this blog know, Christmas morning for me = “Jauchtzet, frohlocket,” the first entrance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio*. But ten days ago, during the first-ever Christmas Oratorio concert of my life as a chorus member, I couldn’t sing those words.

I had unwittingly set myself up for it, because I had just done two things to remember my late mother. It was very cold in the church, and I had lent one of my mother’s scarves to a friend who was singing next to me. As we were getting on stage, I told her: “this scarf has been in many a Bach concert, because my mother used to sing in a Bach choir too.” And then I showed her how I had copied my mother’s signature from her old piano reduction to the new one I was using now.

So while I had been completely fine during all the rehearsals, now with the audience there and those memories, the first notes of the timpani made me choke up. Fortunately, that first soprano entrance is low and doubled by many other voices, so nobody noticed. And I was fine for the rest of the concert, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to sing cantatas 1, 2, 5, and 6 of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with a good orchestra and great soloists.

Do you have special memories associated with Bach’s or other Christmas music? Please let me know in the comments. Here are my recommendations for recordings:

Christmas Cantatas from Bach’s Chorale Cantata cycle, 1724/1725

Christmas Day: Cantata 91 Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ by the J.S. Bach Foundation/Rudolf Lutz, with Monika Mauch – Soprano; Margot Oitzinger – Alto; Bernhard Berchtold – Tenor; and Peter Kooji – Bass. Find the score here, and English translations here.

Second Christmas Day: Cantata 121 Christum wir sollen loben schon by Concerto Copenhagen/Lars Ulrik Mortensen, with Maria Keohane – Soprano; Alex Potter – Alto; Jan Kobow – Tenor; and Matthew Brook – Bass. Find the score here, and English translations here.

Third Christmas Day: Cantata 133 Ich freue mich in dir by Concerto Copenhagen/Lars Ulrik Mortensen, with Maria Keohane – Soprano; Alex Potter – Alto; Jan Kobow – Tenor; and Matthew Brook – Bass. Find the score here, and the English translations here.

Maria Keohane

Sunday after Christmas: Cantata 122 Das neugeborene Kindelein by Collegium Vocale Gent/Philippe Herreweghe, with Vasiljka Jezovsek – Soprano; Sarah Connolly – Alto; Mark Padmore – Tenor; and Peter Kooij – Bass. Find the score here, and the English translations here.

New Year’s Day: Cantata 41 Jesu nun sei gepreiset by the J.S. Bach Foundation/Rudolf Lutz, with Julia Doyle – Soprano; Antonia Frey – Alto; Florian Sievers – Tenor; and Stephan MacLeod – Bass. Find the score here, and the English translations here.

Jan 6, Epiphany: Cantata 123 Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen by Montréal Baroque/Eric Milnes, with Matthew White, alto; Charles Daniels, tenor; and Harry van der Kamp, bass. Find the score here, and the English translations here.

From Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, 1734/1735

Bart Aerbeydt and Milo Maestri
Lucia Giraudo
Daniel Johannsen

All photos above by Donald Bentvelsen. Find him on Instagram at @bentvel.

I highly recommend the video of the most recent live performance by the Netherlands Bach Society under the direction of Lars Ulrik Mortensen. They performed cantatas 1, 4, 5, and 6 of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in the Netherlands earlier this month. I attended the concert in Naarden on December 11, the video below is from the performance in Utrecht, two days later. The choir could have been a bit larger for my personal taste, but for the rest I absolutely loved this performance, with text-focused singing by all soloists, and fabulous and sensitive playing by the instrumentalists, allowing for musical dialogues with the singers. I especially enjoyed the contributions by tenor Daniel Johannsen, oboist Rodrigo Lopez-Paz (photo in my previous post), violinist Lucia Giraudo, and horn players Bart Aerbeydt and Milo Maestri. I very much ejoyed reading the program booklet, especially the the interview with director Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

Read the English program book for this performance here. Read a bit more on the fifth cantata from this same performance in my previous post.

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Best wishes for the New Year,

Wieneke Gorter, December 23, 2024.

* if you don’t know the story, please find it here.

Fourth Sunday of Advent – more insight into Cantata 62 helped me better understand Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

21 Saturday Dec 2024

Posted by in Advent, Cantatas, Chorale cantatas 1724/1725, Leipzig

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Adoration of the Shepherds by Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst, 1622. Pommersches Landesmuseum (Pomerania State Museum), Germany.

In my post for the first Sunday of Advent about Cantata 62 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, I explained how Bach’s chorale cantatas were most likely influenced by Johann Martin Schamel‘s annotations in his publication “Evangelischer Lieder-Commentarius.” Still, in that post, I gave just a few examples of how Bach used Schamel’s explanations.

Only after I wrote that post, I realized that Lydia Vroegindeweij had already created a “Read and Listen” guide for this cantata on her Luther 500 / Bach 300 website, shining a very clear light on the relation between Schamel’s explanations and Bach’s music. However, that article was in Dutch. So over the past few weeks, I translated Lydia’s Dutch text into English, and then Lydia transformed that text into a beautiful web page, with listening examples for every single movement of the cantata. Please find that brand-new English “Read and Listen” guide for Cantata 62 here.

In the process of translating and re-reading, I became more familiar with Luther’s and Schamel’s key themes for Advent and Christmas, especially these three:

  1. The importance of light: the light comes from the manger (as pictured in the painting above), from within, and is a metonym for Christ, always conquering the darkness. It is mentioned again and again.
  2. Jesus is always there, he is living in the hearts of the people, he is always with them as if he were a family friend, a house guest. In other words, he is already here and one doesn’t have to wait for him.
  3. Christ’s divine character and human character exist simultaneously, in one and the same person.

During that same time, I was rehearsing and performing cantatas 1, 2, 5, and 6 of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio as a chorus member, as well as attending an excellent performance by the Netherlands Bach Society of cantatas 1, 4, 5, and 6. Singing these texts and reading them in a program booklet with my newly acquired knowledge, I became much more conscious how strongly Luther’s and Schamel’s way of thinking are also present in the text and music of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.

The theme of the inner light is especially present in one of my favorite parts of the Christmas Oratorio, the fifth cantata, written for the Sunday after New Year. Please find a live video recording here of the Netherlands Bach Society’s performance of this cantata in Utrecht on December 13, 2024, the same production I attended two days earlier in Naarden.

Following the chorus that talks about the sighting of the star, Bach and his librettist present an alto recitative (performed here by Alex Potter), which at first still refers to the star, but then turns to Jesus / to the core of the faith, and explains that Jesus is the light:

Wohl euch, die ihr dies Licht gesehen,
Happy are you who have seen the light,
Es ist zu eurem Heil geschehen!
It has appeared for your salvation!
Mein Heiland, du, du bist das Licht,
My saviour, you, you are the light
Das auch den Heiden scheinen sollen,
Which shall shine on the Gentiles also
Und sie, sie kennen dich noch nicht,
And they, they do not know you yet,
Als sie dich schon verehren wollen.
Though they would already worship you
Wie hell, wie klar muss nicht dein Schein,
How bright, how clear must your radiance be,
Geliebter Jesu, sein!
Beloved Jesus!

Rodrigo Lopez-Paz. Photo by Eduardus Lee, courtesy of the Netherlands Bach Society.

More illustrations of this special light follow in the bass aria (performed here by baritone Tomáš Král and oboist Rodrigo Lopez-Paz)

Erleucht auch meine finstre Sinnen,
Illuminate also my gloomy thoughts
Erleuchte mein Herze
Illuminate my heart
Durch der Strahlen klaren Schein!
With the rays of your clear light!
Dein Wort soll mir die hellste Kerze
Your word will be the brightest candle for me
In allen meinen Werken sein;
In all my deeds;
Dies lässet die Seele nichts Böses beginnen.
This lets my soul begin nothing evil

In the terzetto (performed here by violinist Cecilia Bernardini, soprano Carine Tinney, alto Alex Potter, and tenor Daniel Johannsen), we also see the theme of “Jesus who dwells in the heart” appear. In this trio, the alto interrupts the tenor and soprano with the very strong statement “er ist schon wirklich hier!” (he really is already here!). The tenor and soprano represent the people who think the Messiah is yet to come, singing:

Ach, wenn wird die Zeit erscheinen?
Ah, When will the time appear ?
Ach, wenn kömmt der Trost der Seinen?
Ah, When will he who is the comfort of his people come ?

While the alto voice represents the Lutheran doctrine that Jesus is always with you, that he dwells in your heart, singing:
Schweigt, er ist schon würklich hier!
Be silent, he is really already here!

The text of the closing chorale combines the theme of Jesus dwelling in the heart with that of the inner light:

Zwar ist solche Herzensstube
Indeed such a room in my heart
Wohl kein schöner Fürstensaal,
Is certainly no fine royal palace
Sondern eine finstre Grube;
But rather a dark pit;
Doch, sobald dein Gnadenstrahl
Yet, as soon as the rays of your mercy
In denselben nur wird blinken,
Only gleam within there
Wird es voller Sonnen dünken.
It will seem filled with sunlight.

Wieneke Gorter, December 21, 2024.

Saint Ambrose and Luther in Milan – Second Sunday of Advent

07 Saturday Dec 2024

Posted by in Advent, Cantatas, Chorale cantatas 1724/1725, Leipzig

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In the absence of a chorale cantata for this second Sunday of Advent*, I wanted to read more about Ambrose of Milan, whose “Veni redemptor gentium” inspired Luther to write his “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.” What would Luther have heard about the 4th-century legend when he visited Milan in 1510 on his way to Rome? Always the travel planner, I also wondered if there are there any traces of Ambrose to see in the Milan of today.

Milan’s patron saint

Ambrose of Milan

I learned that Ambrose has been Milan’s patron saint for centuries and is still celebrated today. What’s more, the Christmas season in Milan doesn’t officially start until his Saint’s Day, which happens to be … today, December 7. It is on December 7 that the Scala opens its season, with broadcasts of the opera performance throughout the city. And it is on December 7 that the largest Christmas Market opens, and that the bishop preaches in the Sant’Ambrogio Basilica. If you are from Northern Italy or have visited Milan around this time of year you will laugh at me, but I truly didn’t know this when I decided to write a post about Ambrose and his hymn earlier this week, I only found out today.

Sarcophagus of Stilicho in the Sant’Abrogio Basilica in Milan. 4th century.

Ambrose was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397, and is considered one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He is the founder of the Sant’Ambrogio Basilica in Milan, which still stands today. His literary works have been acclaimed as masterpieces of Latin eloquence, and as Bishop he did fundamental work for later church-state relations. Ambrose is also remembered as the teacher who converted and baptized the Christian theologian St. Augustine of Hippo.

What Luther would have learned more than a thousand years later

While we know Luther as the most important reformer and founder of Protestantism, he started out as an Augustine monk, and studied Theology in Erfurt. We can assume that Luther already knew Ambrose’s hymns, as they were in use in the churches. However, Luther would likely also have studied Ambrose’s and Augustine’s sermons. For example, Ambrose’s sermon “Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke” was widely circulated. In “Luther’s Theology of Music,” Miikka E. Anttila writes: “Ambrose believed that a psalm softens anger, offers a release from anxiety, and alleviates sorrow. He also pointed out that a child who refuses to learn other things takes pleasure in contemplating a psalm.” These ideas we also find in Luther’s writings.

In 1510, Luther was sent to Rome along with another monk to settle a dispute. There are many legends about Luther’s time in Rome, but I’m more intrigued by his stop in Milan on the way to Rome. In that city, Leonardo da Vinci had finished his Last Supper in 1498. Architect Donato Bramante had constructed the Cloisters of Sant’Ambrogio also in 1498 and a year later finished work on the Santa Maria della Grazie. Also it had been as recently as 1489 that Josquin des Prez, Luther’s favorite composer** had worked in Milan.

20th-century restoration of a mosaic from the 4th through 13th century in Sant’Ambrogio Basilica in Milan.

Did Luther visit Sant’Ambrogio Basilica? Did he see this mosaic, which was restored in the 13th century? Did he hear the many legends about Ambrose that made him even more of a hero to him? And: did he happen to hear this incredible polyphony of Josquin des Prez (The Hilliard Ensemble, recorded 1983) somewhere in Milan, and was it thus that he fell in love with Josquin’s music? This is Josquin des Prez’ Ave Maria Virgo Serena, one of the few works by Josquin of which scholars nowadays are certain it was written by him, composed around 1485, during Josquin’s service at the court of Milan, and wildly popular in the 16th century.

As I often say, we will probably never know, but it is nice to contemplate these scenarios, and Milan is now definitely on my “want to go” list.

Wieneke Gorter, December 7, 2024.

*Bach didn’t write a cantata for the second, third, or fourth Sunday of Advent in Leipzig, because the time between the first Sunday of Advent and Christmas was a time of introspection, similar to Lent. Regarding music performed during church services, this meant only strict liturgical singing (= the congregation singing chorales and responses), nothing else.

**Luther wrote: “God has preached the gospel through music, too, as may be seen in Josquin’s, all of whose compositions flow freely, gently, and cheerfully, are not forced or cramped by rules, and are like the song of the finch.”

Further Reading

Find Encyclopedia Brittanica’s entry on Saint Ambrose here.

Find more stories on Saint Ambrose here, and architectural and historical information on the Basilica here.

Find tourist information on Saint Ambrose and the festivities in Milan everywhere on the internet. I started here.

Find the full Latin text of Saint Ambrose’s hymn and Luther’s German adaptation on this website (in Dutch).

Find Yakub E. Kartawidjaja’s PhD thesis “Music in Martin Luther’s Theology” here.

Detail from the Agnus Dei, an original mosaic from the 4th century at the Sant’Ambrogio Basilica in Milan.

First Sunday of Advent 1724: Bach helps commemorate and explain a 200-year-old hymn text

30 Saturday Nov 2024

Posted by in Advent, Cantatas, Chorale cantatas 1724/1725, Leipzig

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Evangelischer Lieder-Commentarius (Evangelical Hymn Commentary) by Johann Martin Schamel from 1724: an annotated hymnal, published to commemorate the bi-centenary of Luther’s first hymnals. From left to right: the title page; page 89 with the first four verses of Luther’s hymn “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,” with lower-case letters and asterisks referring to footnotes; page 91 with the footnotes.

Please open this post in your internet browser (just click on the title at the top) to see the images placed the correct way – thank you!

Today’s cantata – Happy 1st Advent!

Warning: If you don’t feel like reading science journalism, and just came here to listen to a beautiful cantata, I got you: here is Cantata 62 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland in an excellent new live performance by the J.S. Bach Foundation under the direction of Rudolf Lutz. I especially love the opening chorus as well as the tenor aria, sung from memory by Benedikt Kristjánsson (read more about him in my post about the Bachfest in Leipzig this past summer). Other soloists are Lisa Andres, soprano; Antonia Frey, alto; and Peter Harvey, bass.

Find the German text with English translation here, and the score here.

A special exhibition in Eisenach

A month ago, I traveled to Eisenach (Bach’s birthplace in Germany) to catch the last days of a special exhibition at the Bachhaus on the double anniversary of Luther’s hymns (500 years) and Bach’s chorale cantatas (300 years) and the connection between the two. I got to see in real life many hymnals that were in use during Bach’s time. What struck me right away was how small and narrow they are! They were truly meant to be held in one hand (so one could leaf through it with the other hand). This is of course exactly what Luther envisioned when he published the very first German-language hymnals in 1524: that churchgoers could read and sing along during the church service, and also easily use the hymnals at home and at school. This photo gives a good idea of their size compared to a larger book:

Luther’s “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland”

“Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” in the Erfurter Enchiridion from 1524.

While most of the hymnals were displayed as in the photo above, the two oldest and rarest, on loan from libraries in Regensburg and Strasbourg, were hidden behind thick felt flaps to protect them from the light. One of these, Luther’s Erfurter Enchiridion (Erfurter Handbook) from 1524, lay opened to his Advent hymn “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,” the hymn Bach used two hundred years later, for Cantata 62 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland for the first Sunday of Advent. Luther based this hymn on the then still well-known “Veni redemptor gentium” from the 4th century, closely translating the latin, and only slightly altering the melody.

Publications commemorating the bi-centenary of Luther’s hymnals in 1724 likely influenced Bach

Bach scholars have always wondered why Bach wrote an entire cycle of cantatas based on hymns. Some offer that his first cycle of cantatas (1723/1724) must have been too complicated for his audience (the Leipzig churchgoers) and that Bach, or possibly his employers, thus came up with something extremely familiar (the hymns) as a common thread for the second cycle of cantatas. Others say that the ability of the boy sopranos must have been so bad, judging by letters Bach later wrote to complain about this, that he switched to chorale cantatas so the choir sopranos would only have to sing the well-known chorale melody while the altos, tenors, and basses would sing more complicated parts.

While none, a combination, or part of these hypotheses might be true, recent research by Dutch theologian Dr. Lydia Vroegindeweij provides us with a third theory: Bach was very likely influenced by a strong movement in Lutheran Germany in the first quarter of the 18th century for the preservation and clarification of the original Lutheran hymns. His choice of 1724 as the year to start a cycle of chorale cantatas would thus not have been a coincidence at all, but a way to help commemorate the centenary of Luther’s first hymnals. The most important figures in this movement operated in Bach’s circle of friends and colleagues and of course Bach was a great admirer of Luther, having Luther’s entire oeuvre of writings in his library. So he would have been more than interested to support the efforts to preserve and better explain Luther’s hymns.

Specifically, Lydia makes a strong case that Bach and/or his anonymous librettist must have consulted Johann Martin Schamel’s Evangelischer Lieder-Commentarius (see the caption heading this post) for the recitative and aria texts for several if not all of his chorale cantatas. She has pointed out that many chorale cantata texts correspond to Schamel’s explanations, use the exact same words, or even follow Schamel’s suggestion to combine Luther’s psalm in question with another one (as is the case in Cantata 38, read more here).

As Lydia explains in a podcast she now has on a Dutch radio station, Luther’s hymn “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” especially needed clarification, because in an effort to make the text rhyme and stay as close as possible to the original “Veni redemptor gentium,” Luther had made the text so compact that it had puzzled many hymnologists and clergy.

How does Bach illustrate Schamel’s explanations of this particular hymn?

In the first stanza (the literal text of the opening chorus), Schamel puts (a) after the word “Nun” (now) and explains [freely translated]: “As if it meant: Oh come now, you promised! Instead, it is the poetic style, and is not meant as if the Savior had yet to come into the world. But he comes to believers daily, again and again, each time as a new step of grace.” This concept of “again and again” and the “steps” are clearly present in the music of the opening chorus of Cantata 62.

Lydia says: “Schamel substantiates this with a reference to John 14:23. This corresponds with Luther’s own explanation of this verse in the Calov Bible [which Bach was also familiar with, and added to his own library in 1733]. There Luther also talks about daily contact, and about Jesus who would like to live with people in their houses and share a meal with them.”

The emphasis in this cantata is placed more on the sacred miracle of the human birth and less on the “coming”. This “Wunder” (miracle/wonder) is even more celebrated in the tenor aria. Lydia says: “The aria emphasizes that God encompasses the whole world with that kind of miracle and that we can only admire that grace.”

And the prize for the best interpretation of the tenor aria goes to …

When two years ago Lydia and I searched for the best interpretation of the tenor aria, i.e. the one that really emphasizes the “wonder,” our prize went to Jan Kobow on the Gardiner recording from 2000. Listen to it here. Kobow does a beautiful job expressing the wonder, not only in the first phrase, but also in the B-section when he sings “o, Wunder”. He also makes a striking contrast between those wondrous and quiet-making aspects of the miracle and the stronger, more convinced text of “Herrscher.”

However, now that I’ve heard and seen Benedikt Kristjánsson sing on the recording with the J.S. Bach Foundation, his singing strikes me as the perfect illustration of “God encompasses the whole world with that kind of mystery.”

Further reading

If you would like to do your own reading and interpreting of Schamel’s commentary, you can find it here (in German). If you would like to subscribe to Lydia’s newsletter, you can do so here. Also, please don’t forget to subscribe to my blog – just fill in your email address here below, and you will receive an email every time I post a new story. Thank you!

Wieneke Gorter, November 30, 2024.

About Weekly Cantata

I am a bilingual writer, publicist, choral singer, art and nature lover, foodie, happy wife, and blessed mother of two. I started this blog in 2016, inspired by my late mother’s love for Bach’s cantatas. After 23 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m now back in the Netherlands.

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Trip to Köthen – Saturday, June 8 – Part One

20 Thursday Jun 2024

Posted by in Bach's life, Cantatas, Köthen, Leipzig

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View of the city of Köthen. Copper engraving from around 1720. Bach-Archiv Leipzig.

This is the second post about my experience at Bachfest Leipzig 2024. Please find my first post, about Friday, June 7, here. Find the program for Bachfest Leipzig 2025 here.

7 am walk through Leipzig’s historic center

Because of the back-to-back activities on Friday I hadn’t made it to a supermarket before 10 pm, so I went on a grocery run at 7 am on Saturday. I took a little detour past the Thomaskirche, just to be sure where to locate the “main portal” where the bus to Köthen would leave from at 9:30. Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post: this time of year there are blooming linden trees everywhere in Leipzig! So many more than in Amsterdam. The blossoms provide a delightful and calming fragrance.

I’m so glad I listened to the Reisen reisen podcast before traveling to Leipzig, otherwise I wouldn’t have known to walk into the many courtyards one finds in this city. I found the one pictured here on Saturday morning, and another gorgeous one on Sunday. There are several others I missed, so I will have to come back! Walking in these courtyards I could imagine a bit better how the city must have looked in Bach’s time.

On the way back to my apartment I even found a friendly fruit and vegetable seller setting up early for the weekly open market, so I was all set for making breakfast and a sandwich to take on the bus to Köthen.

On the bus to Köthen

Around 9 am I found a seat on the festival bus to Köthen, together with 49 other Bach fans from all over the world. Köthen is where Bach lived and worked from 1717 to 1723, between his time in Weimar and his time in Leipzig. It was here that he wrote his Brandenburg concertos, cello suites, his sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and several other instrumental works. He had an appreciative employer and got to work with probably the best orchestra he ever had in his life. He retained his title of “Court Capellmeister” even after leaving his post. His wife Anna Magdalena had been a singer at this court for two years before they moved to Leipzig, and together they made the journey from Leipzig to Köthen at least three times to perform for the Prince together.

I visited Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, and Weimar in 2022, but had never been to Köthen, so it was a no-brainer for me to join this “Bach out and about” trip.* The landscape between Leipzig and Köthen, at least as seen from the freeway, is much less interesting than that of Thuringia, the region where Bach spent the first part of his life, and where I traveled in 2022. This was actually a good thing, so there were no spectacular views to distract me from our guide Gerlinde Kämmerer’s stories about Bach’s life in Köthen and his travels between Leipzig and Köthen.

Something new I learned during this bus trip: roads used by carriages in this area in the early 18th century were stone roads (“Steinwege” in German), which we should not understand as cobblestone or gravel, but a bit more like this one pictured here, rough stones hammered into sand or clay, but not as clean-looking – Gerlinde explained there would have been all kinds of dirt sticking to the surface. All this made for very uncomfortable travel and the carriage would have had to make several stops along the way. Looking it up on the fantastic new interactive map by Viabundus, a carriage-trip from Leipzig to Köthen would have taken more than one whole day in Bach’s time.

When we got close to Köthen and turned off the highway we saw fields of poppies and several hop farms. Hops have been grown in this Elbe-Saale region for centuries. The first written records date to the 9th century. Today this hop growing region is the second-largest in Germany, with around 1550 hectares (about 3830 acres).

Hop farm. Plants reach full height at the end of June

More about this trip, and what we actually saw and heard in Köthen, in the next post.

Wieneke Gorter, June 20, 2024. Links updated November 29, 2024.

*Each year the festival organizes a handful of these trips to other towns in the region. It is a combination of city and/or museum tour in the morning and organ or chamber music concert in the afternoon. The concert is usually in collaboration with a local organization, so there will be more people attending the concert than just you and your fellow travelers. But for the rest of the day you are with your travel group only. Once at the destination, the groups gets split into English-speakers and German-speakers. The trips are well organized, you travel in a comfortable coach, and there are knowledgeable guides and excellent translators on board (more about this in the next post). There is a lunch break long enough to eat at a local restaurant or go for a walk. On the way there, you get a lecture about what you are going to see, and on the way back you can take a nap, chat with new friends you made on the trip, or organize all the photos you took. This year these trips cost €88 each and I found it well worth it.

Bachfest Leipzig 2024 – Friday June 7

11 Tuesday Jun 2024

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This is the first post in a longer series about my experience at the Bachfest Leipzig 2024. I was there for only four days, and wished I could have stayed longer and could have traveled more in the region, but it was enough to get a taste of the wonderful atmosphere, the camaraderie, and to hear some fabulous concerts in Leipzig and Freiberg. Find the program for Bachfest Leipzig 2025 here.

I’m really here!

On Friday, June 7, I took a crazy early train from Amsterdam and arrived at the Leipzig main station (Hauptbahnhof) in the early afternoon. Both at the station and on the short walk to my apartment I saw enormous Bachfest posters, see the pictures above (left photo at the station, right photo at the Evangelisch Reformierte Kirche, which is one of the concert venues). No doubt about it: I was really here!

Participating in a Flash Mob

View from the rehearsal room

At 3:15 pm I made my way to a pretty rehearsal room around the corner of the St. Thomas church (Thomaskirche), to rehearse for the not-so-secret-anymore Flash Mob. The festival’s artistic director Michael Maul had announced the Flash Mob on Facebook and picked a good time and place for it: right before the festival’s official opening concert, on St. Thomas Square. To give you an idea of how busy it was: the cafe we sat down at afterwards asked us to move or wait 10 minutes, because they had run out of glasses.

We sang the two chorales from Cantata 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben: “Wohl mir, dass ich Jesum habe” and the famous “Jesus bleibet meine Freude.” To get an idea of what that sounded like, watch this video by the Bachfest on Facebook, with many thanks to David Chin for filming and creating the video.

I had met up with my friend Lydia Vroegindeweij. Thanks to her groundbreaking research into chorale cantatas and her and Ellen van der Sar’s all-encompassing Luther300-Bach500 project, Michael Maul now calls her “Die Choralkantatenexpertin” (the chorale cantata expert) when he introduces her to a fellow Bach scholar, and rightfully so. We had fun participating in the Flash Mob, and met three lovely women from a local a capella choir. Afterwards (while the opening concert was taking place in the church) the others enjoyed a “Bach Kaffee” (yes that is a German thing, to drink coffee late in the afternoon), while I ate an early dinner.

Lydia Vroegindeweij (middle) and our fellow choir members
on St. Thomas Square (me on the right)

Singing along with chorales

The theme of this year’s Bachfest is Chorale Cantatas, and in 16 concerts over the course of one week, all of Bach’s chorale cantatas* will get performed during this festival. I only attended the first one of these, on the evening of Friday, June 7, in the beautiful St. Nicholas church (Nikolaikirche), which has great acoustics.

Carus’ special festival edition

To make the audience fully aware of the chorale on which Bach based his cantata, the festival came up with a formula for each of these cantata concerts. For each cantata on the program, the formula is as follows:

  1. The church’s organist plays an organ prelude (by Bach if he wrote one) on the chorale melody
  2. The audience sings the first two stanzas of the chorale. To aid with this, the festival and Carus Verlag created a free edition of all the chorales (you can download it too, just click on the link!)
  3. After the closing chorale of each cantata (sung by the ensemble performing the concert), the audience also gets to sing that closing chorale.

I very much appreciated this for this first concert, and I happened to sit next to a friend who is also an avid choral singer, so we enjoyed it. However it made for an extremely long concert, and I felt a bit for the people who had bought tickets to *all* chorale cantata concerts, as I couldn’t really see myself doing this seven days in a row, sometimes three times a day.

Benedikt Kristjánsson

Benedikt Kristjánsson, photo by Angela Árnadóttir

The tenor soloist you see and hear singing first in the Flash Mob video is Benedikt Kristjánsson, whom Bach fans still know best for singing an entire St. John Passion by himself during the pandemic.

Kristjánsson was my hero of this first festival day, yes a bit because of the Flash Mob, but mainly thanks to his singing in this first chorale cantata concert.

For me, his aria “Des Vaters Stimme ließ sich hören” from Cantata 7 Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, which also features two gorgeous flute parts, was the absolute highlight of that concert.

Full Nikolaikirche for the first chorale cantata concert
Nikolaikirche after the concert

After this concert it was time for bed for me, because I would have to get up at 6:30 the next morning. More about that in the next episode.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to share with anyone you think might like to read this too.

Wieneke Gorter, June 11, 2024, updated November 29, 2024.

*Bach’s chorale cantatas = the cantatas he wrote during his second year in Leipzig, from June 1724 to March 1725. For nine and a half months, including the entire Christmas season, Bach would write every cantata according to this same template: the opening movement is a chorale fantasia on the first stanza of an existing Lutheran hymn or chorale, with the tune appearing as a cantus firmus. The last movement has the last stanza of the same hymn as text, in a four-part harmonization of the tune. The text of those choral, outer movements was used verbatim, while the text of the solo, inner movements was paraphrased, but still based on the inner stanzas of the same hymn.

Bach’s Gratitude Cantatas

28 Sunday Jan 2024

Posted by in Cantatas, Leipzig, Septuagesima

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The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard by Rembrandt van Rijn. 1637. Oil on panel. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

An idea for this blog post was still sitting in my drafts folder. It’s a party in that drafts folder, so many blog posts in various stages of readiness are hanging out there! Self-imposed deadlines and self-imposed standards often lead me to decide that the post won’t be finished in time for the appropriate Sunday and that it is thus better to shelve it.

In 2020 I jotted down that it would be good to talk about gratitude in connection with Bach’s Cantata 144 Nimm was dein ist, und gehe hin! (1724) and Cantata 84 Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke (1727) for this Sunday Septuagesima, or the Third Sunday before Lent. I’m not alone in associating these cantatas with a gratitude practice. Prominent Bach scholar Michael Maul calls the soprano aria “Genügsamkeit” (Contentment) from Cantata 144 “the Buddha aria” in his Podcast about this cantata (in German).

It seems appropriate to take the draft post off the shelf today, because at the start of this weekend I went to see Wim Wenders’ movie Perfect Days. The movie celebrates living a simple life and being open to small wonders and pleasures. I loved it and it calmed me down. And it is an excellent opportunity to finally share Miriam Feuersinger’s 2022 solo album “Ich bin vergnügt …” on this blog.

For the background stories about cantatas 144 and 84, please (re)read my post from 2017.

Before I discuss Feuersinger’s recording, I should not forget to mention that the Netherlands Bach Society’s live recording of Cantata 84 was also published in 2022 and features excellent music-making by soprano Maria Keohane and oboist Martin Stadler. I love the many colors of Maria Keohane’s voice and I enjoy watching her sing because she is so obviously enjoying herself, and her singing always seems effortless.

The award-winning Solo Cantata album by Miriam Feuersinger and Capricornus Consort Basel includes a beautiful rendition of Cantata 84. Find it here on Spotify and here on YouTube. I adore Feuersinger’s clear voice and Katharina Arfken’s oboe playing. I also appreciate their decision to have the strings play the alto, tenor, and bass part in the final chorale. It is too bad there is no video recording of this, because watching Miriam Feuersinger’s energy on stage is fantastic, and enormously inspiring to me.* I have never attended a live performance of hers yet, but I am hoping to fix that on February 17 in Stuttgart and/or on April 7 in Arnstadt. And to circle back to gratitude practice, she is also an inspiring promotor of celebrating the beauty in everyday life, from quoting Albert Einstein on her concert calendar page “You can live life in two ways: As if there are no miracles at all, or as if everything you encounter is a miracle,” to her instagram account.

Wieneke Gorter, January 28, 2024.

*watch for example her performing the opening aria of Cantata 32 with the J.S. Bach Foundation here on YouTube.

About Weekly Cantata

I am a bilingual writer, publicist, choral singer, art and nature lover, foodie, happy wife, and blessed mother of two. I started this blog in 2016, inspired by my late mother’s love for Bach’s cantatas. After 23 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m now back in the Netherlands.

If you are on social media, please follow me:

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Please subscribe to this blog! Simply fill in your email address and you’ll receive an email every time I’ve published a new post. Thank you so much / Vielen Dank / Dankuwel / Merci mille fois / 감사합니다 / 谢谢 / ありがとう / Mille grazie / Muchas gracias / Muito obrigado / Tusen takk / Tack så mycket / Terima kasih / شكراً جزيلاً / תודה רבה

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