The song of Simeon

This famous cantata was composed and performed for the first time for the feast of the Purification of Mary, on February 2, 1727, which is celebrated forty days after the birth of Jesus. The date also represents the first presentation of Jesus in the temple. The gospel of that Sunday (Luke 2: 22-32) tells the […]

Paths of search

Cantata 32 is a “dialog cantata” between two characters: the Soul (represented by the soprano) and Jesus (assigned to the bass). It was composed for the first Sunday after Epiphany, with a libretto by Georg Christian Lehms. The gospel for that Sunday recounts the episode of young Jesus escaping the watch of his parents to […]

Well-deserved reward

This cantata for soprano, solo oboe and strings was composed with a libretto by an unknown author, but possibly attributable to Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici), a frequent Bach collaborator in Leipzig. Its premiere date was February 9, 1727, and the gospel for that Sunday (third before Lent) is the Parable of the Workers in the […]