Eloved Beautiful Eine Freundin, Du Bist Schön the NETHERLANDS BACH SOCIETY Jos Van Veldhoven Conductor the Netherlands Bach Society Jos Van Veldhoven Conductor

CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS SA 27308 eloved Beautiful eine Freundin, du bist schön THE NETHERLANDS BACH SOCIETY Jos van Veldhoven conductor The Netherlands Bach Society Jos van Veldhoven conductor Soloists Johannette Zomer soprano ©MARCO BORGGREVE Marcel Beekman tenor Harry van der Kamp bass (J.S. Bach / J.C. Bach) Stephan MacLeod bass (Schütz / Böhm) Ripienists Amaryllis Dieltiens soprano Jean-Sébastien Beauvais alto Marc Chambers alto (also soloist) Kevin Skelton tenor Michiel Meijer bass Instrumentalists Antoinette Lohmann (solo in J.C. Bach), Pieter Affourtit violin Arjen de Graaf, Elisabeth Ingen Housz, John Wilson Meyer viola Lucia Swarts cello James Munro double-bass Matthias Später theorbe Pieter Dirksen organ Siebe Henstra harpsichord Jos van Veldhoven 2 ©MARCO BORGGREVE ©MARCO BORGGREVE Johannette Zomer Marcel Beekman ©DIDIER JORDAN ©MARCO BORGGREVE Harry van der Kamp Stephan MacLeod 3 My beloved, thou art fair orchestral. In Bach family circles, Johann Chris- toph was considered “the great and expressive com- Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, a poser”, while in Leipzig Johann Sebastian included collection of love songs grew up. Under the title of several works by his great-uncle (whom he praised the “Most beautiful of songs”, they found a home as a “profound composer”) in the local church in the Old Testament – it was Martin Luther who repertoire. Although only a few of his cantatas have first gave them the name of “Song of Songs” – and survived, their wide range of settings and emotional since that time they have inspired and fascinated a color bears witness to Johann Christoph’s versatili- vast number of theologians, mystics, philosophers, ty. The great wedding cantata, Meine Freundin, du poets, painters, and, last but not least, composers. bist schön (My beloved, thou art fair) is considered Particularly during the Baroque period, these his masterpiece. It is most probable that he com- poetic, sensual, vividly descriptive texts were set posed it in 1679 for the wedding of an Arnstadt over and over again to music, and they inspired cousin of the same name, who was also the brother librettists to expand on the original texts. Some of of Johann Ambrosius (Johann Sebastian’s father). the most beautiful settings of the Song of Songs The latter was also the person who wrote out the were produced in Germany. One classic example only surviving copy of the work, which later ended is the motet for double chorus, Steh auf, meine up in the “Altbachisches Archiv”, put together by Freundin (Arise, my beloved) (swv 498) by Hein- his son Johann Sebastian. It is set for the ambitious rich Schütz. It is among the few of his surviving combination of four solo voices, a four-part compositions which have not been printed. We still “chorus”, solo violin, three violas, and continuo. know little of the background for this lively work; The text is derived entirely from the Song of it has been dated approximately 1650. Songs, but the style is anything but liturgical. This can be observed in the amusing marginal The most important member of the wide- commentaries which Johann Christoph adds to branching Bach family tree, before Johann the Song of Songs, which is itself performed in all Sebastian’s arrival, was certainly Johann Christoph seriousness. This is an exuberant composition, with Bach. Born in Arnstadt in 1642 as son of Heinrich an extremely virtuosic solo violin part. The climax Bach, the city organist, he began his career as of the work is the central aria for soprano and organist of his native city’s castle. In 1665 he moved strings, composed as an ‘inexhaustible’ ciacona up to a position in Eisenach, where he became the with 66 variations. This ciacona is framed by municipal organist at St. George’s church and the Song of Songs dialogues, first for soprano and organist and harpsichordist to the ducal court bass, and after the ciacona for four solo voices, 4 progressing to a rousing passage of polychoral that was primarily intended to enable Bach to alternation with the added “chorus” (“Denn das study organ and harpsichord under Böhm. A large ist eine Gabe” – For that is a gift). The hymnlike quantity of Böhm’s keyboard music has survived, closing chorus is also for double chorus: “Das but only a handful of his cantatas. One of these gratias das singen wir” (We sing the gratias) which is Mein Freund ist mein (My beloved is mine) for fades to a ‘piano’ phrase played by the solo violin. two four-voiced choirs (strings/voices) and basso continuo. The strophic text, by an unknown poet, Georg Böhm was born in 1661 in the hamlet of takes a familiar quotation from the Song of Songs Hohenkirchen, near Ohrdruf (where Johann as its inspiration: “My beloved is mine, and I am Sebastian lived from 1695 to 1700). He probably his”. This phrase is developed in a different manner studied with Johann Pachelbel in Erfurt. Böhm in each of the sections. Two charmingly melodic, reappears in 1690 in Hamburg, which at that time expansive movements, in triple meter and set for was the capital of North German organ compo- the entire ensemble, serve as a framework for the sition and, moreover, boasted a flourishing composition. A striking feature is the cantata’s tradition of opera. Böhm’s compositions are a lively concertante ending, based on a vigorous theme, reflection of both of these influences. In 1698 he with strong rhythmic accents. Between these two was appointed organist of St. John’s church in choral segments there are four emotionally ex- Lüneburg, and it is in this same city where the pressive arias, which however are composed in very youthful Johann Sebastian Bach showed up different styles for a solo voice and continuo; each two years later. It is true that the young boy is set off by an identical instrumental ritornello. became a chorister and student at another church, St. Michael’s, but his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Johann Sebastian Bach’s unusually melodious later referred explicitly to Böhm as his father’s cantata Der Herr denket an uns (bwv 196) has been ‘teacher’. This was recently confirmed by the assigned a date around 1709, near the beginning of discovery of organ tablature manuscripts written in the composer’s Weimar period. The wedding for Johann Sebastian Bach’s early handwriting; one of which it was intended is unknown; the setting, for them is signed “in the house of Mr. Georg Böhm, four vocalists, strings, and organ, is intimate in Lüneburg, in the year 1700”. We should probably scale. It is a ‘transitional’ work, which on the one see Bach’s choice of St. Michael’s church as a hand makes use of the formal language of the ‘parking place’ that was determined by connections seventeenth century (as we clearly see in Bach’s in Ohrdruf (Elias Herda, the cantor at Ohrdruf, earliest cantatas – just think of the “Actus Tragi- had also been at this church school), and a choice cus”) and on the other hand shows us the early 5 blossomings of new “Italian” elements which do Jos van Veldhoven studied musicology at the Rijks- not find their full expression until sometime universiteit of Utrecht, and choral and orchestral around 1713, when Bach began composing cantatas conducting at the Royal Conservatory, the Hague. on a more regular basis. One “old-fashioned” He has been artistic director of The Netherlands feature, in particular, is the choice of text, because Bach Society since 1983. In this capacity he regularly this consists exclusively of a fragment of the Bible gives performances at home and abroad of the major (in this case, four verses from Psalm 115), without works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his predecessors any poetic additions or embellishments; but the and contemporaries. In addition he has been the absence of recitatives is another striking feature. director since 1976 of the Utrechts Barok Consort, The sections are very concisely composed, but which he himself founded. With his ensembles he nevertheless contain progressive elements. For has made a great number of radio, television, and example, the opening sinfonia is laid out like an cd recordings both at home and abroad, and he has Italian concerto movement ‘in miniature’, and the appeared in festivals in the Netherlands and many soprano aria “er segnet die den Herren fürchten” countries in Western Europe. (The Lord shall bless them that fear him) is pro- Jos van Veldhoven is a regular guest artist with bably Bach’s very first aria in da capo form, very international orchestras including Das Orchester modest in its dimensions. In order to construct der Beethovenhalle Bonn, The Tokyo Philharmonic larger-scale movements, Bach, at this point in his Orchestra, the Telemann Chamber Orchestra, and development, still had to make use of imitation, as the Essener Philharmoniker. Together with director in the swinging duet “Der Herr segne euch je mehr Dietrich Hilsdorf, Jos van Veldhoven has been und mehr” (The Lord shall bless thee more and working since 2001 on a cycle of staged Handel more) with its alternations between vocal phrases oratorios at the Bonn Opera and the Aalto Theatre and string ritornelli, and particularly, as well, in the in Essen. Van Veldhoven also appears in his native two fugues which make up the main portion of country as a guest conductor, including appearances both choral sections. The virtuosic “Amen”-double with Holland Symfonia, Het Brabants Orkest, het fugue at the end of the cantata gains steadily in Limburgs Symfonie Orkest and Opera Zuid. dynamism toward the end, but nevertheless ends In previous years, Jos van Veldhoven has attracted “piano” – a typical trait for the compositions of the frequent attention with performances of ‘new’ youthful Bach.

Load more