New Year’s recreations
Cantata 190 is Bach’s first New Year’s cantata in Leipzig, composed for January 1st, 1724. Unfortunately, it has not survived intact, probably due to Bach himself reusing the music for a later occasion around 1730. For the first two movements, all we have are voice and violin parts. Scholars and musicians have attempted to reconstruct […]
Keyboard Partita No. 3
The third work of Clavier-Übung Part I, the Partita No. 3 in A minor, goes back to seven movements after the shorter Partita No. 2. Following the pattern of starting each Partita with a differently titled movement, BWV 827 opens with a Fantasia, followed by the three canonical dances – Allemande, Corrente and Sarabande. The […]
Lingering a bit longer
Cantata 64, composed for the third day of Christmas in 1723, shares several characteristics with BWV 40 presented the day before. Its libretto, based on a text by Johann Oswald Knauer, doesn’t include immediate relationships with readings of the day. Rather, it centers on the idea of rejecting worldly possessions and riches to focus on […]
