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Cantata BWV 150
Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich
Discussions - Part 5 |
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Continue from Part 4 |
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Discussions in the Week of June 9, 2013 (3rd round) |
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David D. Jones wrote (June 9, 2013):
Today's cantata is BWV 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich. The exact date of this cantata is not known and the exact occasion for which it was composed is unknown, although it is said that an acrostic in the concluding four movements spelled out the name of Dr. Conrad Meckbach, a Mühlhausen councilor who celebrated his 70th birthday in April 1707, but in my opinion, this somber composition is hardly suited for the celebration of the birthday of a prominent Muhlhausen citizren. Someone in our group perhaps thinks it is this cantata and not BWV 131 that was composed for the hypothetical penitential service that followed the fire in Mühlhausen. Gardiner was so entranced by this cantata that he recorded it twice during the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. Although I wish he had used that space to record some of the few cantatas he left out of the pilgrimage, the second recording does reveal subtle felicities of tone and interpretation absent in the second; the solemn opening sinfonia is quieter and more timeless and the descending chaconne of the opening chorus is more granitic. |
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Continue on Part 6 |
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