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Reviewer: David Vickers Two Weimar-period cantatas are presented in their revised Leipzig versions, prepared during Bach’s first few months at the Thomaskirche. Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (Third Sunday after Trinity, 1714) was used for the same liturgical occasion in Leipzig on June 13, 1723 – just a few weeks after the Bach family had moved from Cöthen into a newly renovated apartment at St Thomas School. His revision was divided into two parts (heard before and after the sermon), distributed the solo numbers slightly differently and added four trombones to the fugal chorus ‘Sei nun wieder zufrieden’. Hans-Christoph Rademann nurtures a compassionate performance: Andreas Helm’s solo oboe and sorrowful contrapuntal strings in the Sinfonia are consoling, the first chorus is moulded and enunciated immaculately, Núria Rial’s sweetly hushed dialogue with poetic oboe (‘Seufzer, Tränen, Kummer, Not’) has gentle pathos and Benedikt Kristjánsson’s mellifluous illustration of salty tears is cathartic rather than bitterly anguished (‘Bäche von gesalznen Zähren’). The smooth-edged choral fugues ‘Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele’ and ‘Sei nun wieder zufrieden’ might perhaps have afforded dynamic incision but the final chorus (with three trumpets and timpani added by Bach in 1723) packs a brilliant punch. Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Fourth Sunday in Advent, 1716) was adapted and extended for the Feast of the Visitation on July 2, 1723: the order of movements and some texts were changed, new recitatives were inserted and a new chorale setting was added at the end of each part. Rademann lets the Gaechinger Kantorey (particularly trumpeter Hannes Rux-Brachtendorf) off the leash a bit in the effervescent opening chorus. Wiebke Lehmkuhl’s dialogue with solo oboe d’amore (‘Schäme dich, o Seele nicht’) and recitative with two oboes da caccia (‘Der höchsten Allmacht Wunderhand’) have alluring solemnity, and Rial’s whispered intimacy in ‘Bereite dir, Jesu, noch itzo die Bahn’ is matched by Mayumi Hirasaki’s finely shaded solo violin. Matthias Winckhler’s extrovert recitative (‘Verstockung kann Gewaltige verblenden’) and Kristjánsson’s smoothly declamatory ‘Hilf, Jesu, hilf, dass ich auch dich bekenne’ are accompanied alertly by masterful continuo instrumentalists. The bass and trumpet aria ‘Ich will von Jesu Wundern singen’ achieves a deft balance of flamboyance and clarity, and the beloved closing chorale ‘Jesus bleibet meine Freude’ has dancelike elegance.
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