Bach: Cantatas, Vol. 27, Blythburgh/Kirkwall

Pressed for time at the end of a busy Whit weekend during his first year in Leipzig, Bach based BWV 184 Erwünschtes Freudenlicht (1724) on a hasty revision of a lost Cöthen secular cantata. One might momentarily mistake the second movement of this cantata as the origin of the celebrated duet from Lakmé, before considering the long odds of Delibes ever having clapped eyes on this obscure piece. The pastoral mood continues a year later in BWV 175 Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen (1725). This is a more elaborate work, the eighth of the nine consecutive texts Bach set by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler.

Recorded in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall after one of the more dramatic journeys on the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, the first cantata for Trinity Sunday, BWV 165 O heil'ges Geist- und Wasserbad, was composed in 1715 in Weimar. It is a true sermon-in-music, based on the Gospel account of Jesus' night-time conversation with Nicodemus on the subject of 'new life'. A grand French-style overture heralds the start of BWV 194 Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest. The cantata seems to have begun life as a secular Cöthen piece some time between 1717 and 1723, and was then adapted for the dedication of the new organ at Störmthal (2 November 1723). The programme ends with the genial and uplifting work, BWV 129 Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott.