January 9: Cantatas BWV 35, BWV 169, BWV 170 (Bernarda Fink / Freiberger Borockorchester)

Today’s cantatas are sung by Bernarda Fink with the Freiberger Borockorchester, the orchestra we heard last week supporting Bach’s harpsichord concertos.

This is a pleasant collection, and well sung by Fink, a mezzo-soprano.

Here’s a standout aria from BWV 169:

Listen to the whole thing, and I’ll pull some highlights:

I love how the organ melody weaves with the voice throughout the piece. Both enter on the same note and then take take their own journeys until... a key change and crunchy harmony out of nowhere with twelve seconds to go in this clip:

Where did that come from? It’s bold and surprising and just right. I don’t understand how he pushes us back into a comfortable place so quickly.

The text — an ode to piety and self-abnegation — doesn’t really resonate with me, and/or maybe this is just a clunky translation I found on the Emmanuel Music website:

Die in me,
world and all your love,
so that my breast
for ever and ever on earth
becomes practiced in the love of God;
die in me,
arrogance, riches, greed,
you rejected urges of the flesh!

Sometimes it’s easier on the ears not to know the German.

The instrumental coda after the singing concludes is a quiet tour de force, a sad waltzing melody cascading downwards, and holy crap: after winding through this whole tune, the final phrase — which feels like a perfect conclusion — is the same phrase that opens the piece into all of its unfolding possibilities:

Opening phrase:

Closing phrases (Matches the above with four seconds remaining):

I only noticed this because of close listening while writing this post. I am clearly missing gobs of other interesting things. There is so much depth to these works, and they reward a lifetime of close listening.