Leading the sheep to water

This is a cantata for the second Sunday after Easter (or “Good Shepherd” Sunday), composed by Bach for performance on April 8th, 1731. It is a “chorale cantata”, and it was later assigned retrospectively to the chorale cantata cycle of 1724/25, which had a gap for this Sunday. A chorale cantata is one in which […]

WTC II – G sharp minor & A major

It’s time to resume our journey through the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier! For our next installment, let’s listen to the prelude/fugue sets in G sharp minor and A major, in the version by Christophe Rousset. He recorded his album on an original 1628 Ruckers harpsichord, restored by Alain Anselm, part of the collection […]

Adapting and refining

This Easter Monday cantata originates from a lost secular cantata from 1718, during Bach’s Cöthen period. The original work, catalogued as BWV 66a, of which we only have the libretto, was intended to celebrate the birthday of Prince Leopold. Bach reworked the music into a church cantata for performance in Leipzig in 1724, then in […]