Gotthold Schwarz - favorite cantata

tk

Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten BWV 93
(All those who seek God's sov'reign guidance)

A guiding principle for my responsibilities as Kantor of St. Thomas’s Leipzig could be: “Bekennen will ich seinen Namen” (BWV 200). This applies as much to the musical direction of St Thomas’s Choir, with its rich tradition as it does to the choice of works for performance from the almost inexhaustible riches of sacred vocal music since the beginning of polyphony and the current question of how a chorale should be convincingly communicated. The masterly cantata Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten BWV 93 displays, as I understand it, the relevance and topicality of hymns. In 1641 Georg Neumark wrote a humble, trusting hymn text, and a wonderful melody to go with it. His “Trostlied” (as he called it, taking his inspiration from Psalm 55, verse 23) quickly became well-known. From this Bach shaped a perfect example of the chorale cantata genre. As a brilliant composer, he made it clear at the same time that this genre should not be regarded as concert music for entertainment, but as his profession of “Soli Deo Gloria”. Today we can comprehend this if we take the trouble to convey the meaning of the text clearly in our performances, following the tried and tested rule “Prima le parole, poi la musica”, while simultaneously asking, like Bach, “Juva Jesu” [Jesus, help].



 

 

 


  Photo: © Alexander Böhm