Luogo e data di registrazione		Amsterdam (Holland) - Gennaio 1971
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SKW 2/1-2 | 2 LPs - durata 41' 48" - 45' 10" | (p) 1971 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Teldec Classics | LC 6706 | 8.35028 ZL | 2 CDs - durata 41' 48" - 45' 10" | (c) 1985 | ADD
	Cover		Johann Sebastian Nach, einige Jahre vor seiner Ernennung zum Kantor in Leipzig. Gemäàlde con JJ. Ihle (1720) Bach Museum Eisenach.
	Note		In questo volume, nel primo Long Playing, sono presenti anche Le Cantate BWV 5  e BWV 6 a cura del Concentus Musicus Wien diretto da Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

INTRODUCTION by Alfred Dürr “Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam” (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan) (BWV 7), composed for the 24th June 1724, immediately follows Cantata No. 2 as the third chorale cantata of Year II. It emphasizes the cyclical cohesion of the year’s series through now placing the hymn melody in the tenor, and through a deliberate change in the technique of writing used in the opening movement: after the overture (BWV 20) and the motet (BWV 2), the concertante principle now comes into its own, since the chorale is embedded, line by line, in a quasi-violin concerto. The basis of Bach’s composition is Martin Luther’s baptismal hymn (1541), whose outer verses, 1 and 7, are retained word for word, each of the inner verses being paraphrased into an aria or recitative movement. The three arias present themselves with steadily increasing instrumentation: continuo writing (2nd movement) - quartet writing with two violins originally tutti, in later performances solo (4th movement) - string writing reinforced by oboes (6th movement). Of these the sixth movement follows. the unusual pattern of the ‘cavata’: concertante virtuosity retires into the background in favour of a song-like structure similar to the arioso. Of the two recitatives the first (3rd movement), a simple ‘secco’, has more of a connecting function whereas the second (5th movement) is given more significance of its own through string accompaniment and transition to arioso on the words of the command to baptise (“Go forth into all the world .. .”). The work closes with a simple chorale setting. “Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben” (Dearest God, when will I die) (BWV 8), a chorale cantata on the five-verse hymn by Caspar Neumann, was written in the Year II series for the 24th September 1724. The unknown librettist has retained the first and last verses as they stand and paraphrased the inner verses into the second to fifth movements. As in most texts for the sixteenth Sunday after. Trinity, the Gospel reading about the raising up of the young man in Nain (Luke 7, 11-17) is understood as a question of one’s own death, and at the same time as a guarantee of the comforting certainty that Jesus will one day reawaken us too (“Mich rufet mein Jesus, wer sollte nicht gehn” - My Jesus calls me, who should not go). Bach transposed the cantata into D major for another later performance; yet it is only the original E major version that has gained a place in our performing practice. The opening chorus lends expression to the question of the hymn in a striking manner: in the instrumental writing, with its own thematic material, two oboes d’amore dominate, while plucked strings and - in the highest register - a flute imitate the tolling of the funeral bells. The choir sings the chorale line by line into the instrumental texture; the melody composed as a funeral hymn in 1695 by Daniel Vetter, organist at St. Nicholas’s Leipzig, sounds quite “modern” in its expressiveness compared with most of the other hymns chosen for the chorale cantatas. The two arias have been conceived in stark contrast to one another: in the first an oboe d’amore depicts the frightened agitation of Man in view of death; the second is in full string writing with concertante flute and the gay dance rhythm of a gigue. From the formal point of view the recitatives have mainly a connecting function, though the first has a string accompaniment. Bach has adopted the final chorale, even though with substantial modifications, as set by its composer Daniel Vetter, both in its melody and in its harmonization.