Johann Sebastian Bach Motetten BWV 225-230
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Johann Sebastian Bach Motetten BWV 225-230 Collegium Vocale Gent Philippe Herreweghe Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Motetten BWV 225-230 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225 Komm, Jesu, komm !, BWV 229 Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden, BWV 230 Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir, BWV 228 Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 Collegium Vocale Gent Philippe Herreweghe Menu Tracklist ------------------------------ English Biographies Français Biographies Deutsch Biografien Nederlands Biografieën Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) SIDE A Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied Motet for double chorus BWV 225 [1] Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied _______________________________________________________________________4’44 [2] Choral: Wie sich ein Vat’r erbarmet – Aria: Gott nimm dich ferner unser an _______________________4’05 [3] Lobet den Herrn __________________________________________________________________________________________ 3’41 Komm, Jesu, komm ! Motet for double chorus BWV 229 [4] Komm, Jesu, komm ______________________________________________________________________________________6’53 [5] Aria: Drum schliess ich mich in deine Hände ___________________________________________________________1’11 SIDE B Jesu, meine Freude Motet for 5 voices BWV 227 [1] Choral: Jesu, meine Freude ______________________________________________________________________________1’03 [2] Es ist nun nichts _________________________________________________________________________________________2’34 [3] Choral: Unter deinem Schirmen ________________________________________________________________________ 1’01 [4] Denn das Gesetz _________________________________________________________________________________________0’52 [5] Trotz dem alten Drachen ________________________________________________________________________________2’10 [6] Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich ___________________________________________________________________________2’34 [7] Choral: Weg mit allen Schätzen ________________________________________________________________________1’05 [8] Andante: So aber Christus in euch ist __________________________________________________________________ 1’51 [9] Choral: Gute Nacht, o Wesen ___________________________________________________________________________3’44 [10] So nun der Geist _________________________________________________________________________________________1’23 [11] Choral: Weicht, ihr Trauergeister _______________________________________________________________________ 1’07 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) SIDE C [1] Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden Motet for 4 voices BWV 230 __________________________________6’12 [2] Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir Motet for double chorus BWV 228 ___________________ 7’57 SIDE D Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf Motet for double chorus BWV 226 [1] Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf ______________________________________________________________________3’52 [2] Alla breve: Der aber die Herzen forsche ____________________________________________________________________2’19 [3] Choral: Du heilige Brunst ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1’43 Total Time __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 62’42 Collegium Vocale Gent / Philippe Herreweghe CORO I Soprano Dorothee Mields°, Zsuzsi Tóth*, Dominique Verkinderen Alto Damien Guillon°, Cécile Pilorger, Alexander Schneider Tenor Malcolm Bennett, Thomas Hobbs°, Vincent Lesage Bass Peter Kooij°, Matthias Lutze, Bart Vandewege ° soloists BWV 225, 227, 229 / * soloist BWV 227 Violin 1 Christine Busch [BWV 225, 226, 228, 230] Violin 2 Caroline Bayet [BWV 225, 226, 228, 230] Alto Paul De Clerck [BWV 225, 226, 228, 230] Cello Ageet Zweistra [BWV 225, 226, 228, 230] CORO II Soprano Annelies Brants, Maria Keohane°, Aleksandra Lewandowska Alto Robin Blaze°, Edzard Burchards, Beat Duddeck Tenor Hans Jörg Mammel°, Dan Martin, José Pizarro Bass Joris Derder, Stefan Drexlmeier, Stephan MacLeod° ° soloists BWV 229, 230 Oboe Timothée Oudinot [BWV 225, 226] Oboe da caccia Taka Kitazato [BWV 225, 226], Marcel Ponseele [BWV 225, 226] Bassoon Julien Debordes [BWV 225, 226] Cornetto Bruce Dickey [BWV 228] Alto Trombone Simen Van Mechelen [BWV 228] Tenor Trombone Claire Mc Intyre [BWV 228] Bass Trombone Joost Swinkels [BWV 228] BASSO CONTINUO Cello Ageet Zweistra [BWV 227, 229] Double Bass Miriam Shalinsky [BWV 225-230] Organ Maude Gratton [BWV 225-230] MOTETTEN BWV 225-230 visit to Leipzig in the course of his journey to Berlin, Peter Wollny expressed ‘in listening to [Bach’s] motets... the most ardent veneration’. In many respects the motets of Johann Sebastian In view of this long and intensive cultivation of the Bach are among his most individual compositions. genre it seems almost paradoxical that there is On the one hand they exemplify a fashion that by barely any other group of works in Bach’s output for the beginning of the eighteenth century had already which basic information is lacking as the motets. This passed its peak and become an increasing rarity, is perhaps the result of the relatively unfavourable constituting a kind of retrospective crowning of situation as regards the sources, despite the a dying form. On the other hand it is precisely the prestige the works enjoyed, but may also be related motets, alone among Bach’s choral works, that can to the fact that – compared with the more or less show an unbroken performance tradition in the cohesive cycles of cantatas, oratorios and Lutheran repertory of the Saint Thomas Choir in Leipzig and masses – Bach’s six motets do not form any kind they have over the centuries proved themselves to of connected series; considerations of cause and be astonishingly durable in the face of continually date, purpose and context, can only be applied to English changing musical fashions. It was no accident that individual works and not to the whole repertory. shortly after 1800 Bach’s vocal works began to Problems arise even when attempting to establish achieve wider reception with the famous edition an inventory of the works. According to the obituary of the motets by the Kantor of St Thomas’s, written by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Johann Gottfried Schicht. In the second half of the Friedrich Agricola, Bach composed only ‘a few eighteenth century a few motets were prominent motets for double choir’, and yet his first biographer as showpieces of the Thomanerchor in Leipzig. As Johann Nikolaus Forkel refers to ‘very many motets, late as 1812 the lexicographer Ernst Ludwig Gerber, principally for St Thomas’s choir school in Leipzig’. referring to a performance of a motet on the first day It is difficult to estimate how many works may have of Christmas in 1767, reported that as he listened been lost; nevertheless, already by 1802, when his ‘whole being was stunned’ and it made him Schicht’s edition appeared, there were no more realise that ‘nothing [could] come near the majesty, motets available than we have today. Alongside the sublimity and splendour that reigned there’. And repertory motets there exist at least as many pieces Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart too, who in 1789 paid a bearing Bach’s name that have since been exposed > Menu as works of other composers (mainly pupils of Bach) fragmentary Bass I part that, although found today in or as arrangements of doubtful provenance. the original set of parts, quite certainly originally had a separate existence, and should probably be regarded Only exceptionally has a clear picture of the origin as the remains of a second set. It is not known if of a work survived, and even then many questions the vocal parts in Bach’s performances could at least about the instrumentation and the specific optionally be reinforced by instruments; this would performance conditions remain unanswered. In the seem to be suggested by the quasi-orchestral layout early nineteenth century the motets were thought to of the eight-voice movement. The motet BWV 225 is be purely a cappella pieces. However, as we learn one of those works that Mozart heard during a visit from documents contemporary with Bach, this was to Leipzig in a performance by the Thomanerchor. only one of several performance possibilities. As A copy prepared for Mozart bears in his own hand Johann Gottfried Walther, for example, concedes in the oft-quoted indication ‘a whole orchestra must his Musicalisches Lexicon of 1732, ‘the vocal parts have been assigned to it’ – a reference, perhaps, to [can be] played and strengthened by all kinds of a specific performance tradition in Leipzig. The piece instruments’. This is also evident from the original begins with a section for double chorus in subtly parts for Bach’s own works and those of other woven counterpoint to verses 1–3 of the 149th masters performed by him. There evidently existed Psalm. The next movement is a setting of the chorale in the eighteenth century several different yet ‘Wie sich ein Vater erbarmet’, which is interrupted equally valid possibilities for presenting them, and it after every line by the choral aria in free verse is clear they were configured by Bach for particular ‘Gott, nimm dich ferner unser an’, before both choirs occasions. combine in a four-part fugue on the text ‘Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn’. An examination of the watermark in the paper of the autograph score and the original parts shows that The motet Komm, Jesu, komm ! BWV 229 does not the motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV use a biblical or chorale text;