Luogo e data di registrazione		Amsterdam (Holland) - Gennaio / Aprile 1971
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SKW 4/1-2 | 2 LPs - durata 47' 06" - 35' 54" | (p) 1972 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Teldec Classics | LC 6706 | 8.35030 ZL | 2 CDs - durata 47' 06" - 35' 54" | (c) 1985 | ADD
	Cover		Johann Sebastian Nach, einige Jahre vor seiner Ernennung zum Kantor in Leipzig. Gemälde con JJ. Ihle (1720) Bach Museum Eisenach.
	Note		-

INTRODUCTION by Alfred Dürr “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” (“Weeping, Lamenting, Worrying, Fearing’’) (BWV 12) was written for the Sunday Jubilate, the third Sunday after Easter, which was the 22nd April 1714. This was the second cantata Bach wrote after his appointment as music director to the Court of Weimar. The libretto is without freely written recitative and this fact, together with the three arias which follow closely on one another, shows it to be an unmistakable transitional form of the Weimar poet Salomon Franck. Despite missing proof of the fact we can regard him as the undoubted author of the libretto. For the content of his work Franck turned to the Sunday Gospel according to St. John (Chap. 16, v. 16-23), and its basic thoughts “Sadness (about Jesus’ farewell) - Joy (at seeing Jesus again)” become the governing theme of the cantata. In his composition Bach interprets these basic thoughts of the libretto with those means which the teaching of the “musica poetica” of his time provided. “Sadness” ist portrayed by chromatiscism, for example the falling bass line of the opening chorus, but “Joy” on the other hand is illustrated by rising diatonic harmony like that which is to be found in the recitative, in the second aria and, too, in the final chorale. There are further musical techniques, such as canonic passages and chorale extracts in instrumental form, which serve to clarify and give point to the libretto. The solemn and separate instrumental introduction - in later cantatas this sort of introduction becomes an integral part of the opening chorus - is followed by a sedately constructed choral section whose main part is a chaconne built up over a chromatically falling bass-continuo. We know this chaconne from its later re-shaping into the “Crucifixus” of the B minor Mass. The middle section has a faster tempo and its construction and harmony are less complicated. The biblical text in the third movement is presented as recitative accompanied by strings, the top instrumental voice of which (violin 1) plays a rising scale of held notes. The full meaning of this is made clear to us when the alto sings the words “in das Reich Gottes eingehen” (“to enter the kingdom of God”) also to a rising scale. The change from sadness to joy is reflected in the fluctuating character of the three arias. In the fifth movement we meet again the rising scalic figure, this time with numerous canonic parts as symbol of the image of Christ, and in the sixth movement in place of an obligato instrument the trumpet plays the chorale melody (without text) “Jesu, meine Freude” (“Jesus, my Joy”) which is to say: Jesus turns sadness into joy. The final chorale, which is as usual simply constructed, is extended into solemn, five-part harmony by an independent, high instrumental voice. "Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen" ("My sighs, my tears") (BWV 13) belongs to Bach’s third cantata year and was first performed on 20th January 1726, the second Sunday after Epiphany. It was only recently ascertained that the librettist was the court librarian at Darmstadt, Georg Christian Lehms. His source was the Sunday Gospel according to St. John (The marriage in Cana, Chap. 2, v. 1-11) and from this he used the philosophy that the Christian can still be sure of God’s help, even when it is not evident at the moment (John, Chap. 2, v. 4: “Mine hour is not yet come”). As the turning point from desperation to trust in God the librettist chooses the hymn verse of the third movement, while the final chorus, which is missing in Lehm’s version, is an addition of Bach’s. Bach’s composition is distinguished by its specifically chamber music character. There is no important opening choral section and the choir is only used tutti in the final chorus. The string ensemble, too, which usually forms the backbone of the orchestra, only appears in the choral sections while the characteristic wood-wind instrumentation of two flutes and an oboe da caccia gives the work an individual colour. Although it is true that the two movements in recitative form have an equally strong power of expression, even while they are set in secco style, it is also true to say that the main musical weight is to be found in the arias both of which express in their own way the sighing of the sinner after his deliverance - the first aria by means of alternating wood-wind passages, and the second by means of two recorders in unison and a solo violin which plays a lamenting melody full of unusual intervals. In this second aria an opposing force takes shape by means of a rising scalic passage. This opposing force governs in particular the middle section of the aria which speaks of the consolation that appears to the person who “looks heavenwards”. “War Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit” (“If God were not with us at this time”) (BWV 14) must be regarded as a “late” cantata since there are hardly any preserved cantatas from Bach’s last period. It was first performed on 30th January 1735, a few weeks after the Christmas Oratorio. As far as the libretto is concerned, it belongs to those choral cantatas which make up the core of Bach’s second cantata year of 1724-1725 (on account of the early Easter in 1725 the fourth Sunday after Epiphany was omitted). The beginning and final verses of Martin Luther’s three-verse paraphrase of the 124th Psalm are used literally (first and fifth movements), the middle verse (third movement) returns again to recitative with a paraphrased free rendering while the words of the two arias are both free developments of the main philosophy of the Psalm. The relationship to the Sunday Gospel according to St. Matthew (Chap. 8, v. 23-27, Jesus calms the tempest) is obvious: only God’s protection can keep us from harm; the relationship makes itself clear, too, in the special picture, already imagined in the Psalm, of the torrents of water from which God saves us. The usual formal design is here made up of two arias, one on each side of a recitative section, and a simple four-part final chorus. However, the first movement has a very striking artistic form and this can perhaps only be fully appreciated after several hearings: the unornamented song-melody is solemnly drawn out by the wind (horn and two oboes in unison) and, played line for line, it is the crowning element of a movement in motet form in which the string parts double those of the choir which in its turn sings every line as a counter-fugue. Every entry of the song-melody is followed at the next entry by its inversion. It is certainly no coincidence that such a movement, which seems like a foretaste of the late contrapuntal works, is to be found in one of Bach’s last church cantatas. “Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir” (“Lord God, we praise You”) (BWV 16) is, like Cantata No. 13, one of the works which Bach composed to George Christian Lehms’ libretti at the end of 1725 and beginning of 1726. However, the final chorus is once again a personal addition of Bach’s. The work was first performed in the new year of 1726 and makes hardly any reference to the Gospel reading for New Year’s Day (Christening of Jesus) but rather thanks God for proven works and prays for future blessing. Bach’s composition shows how much he avoided using any particular kind of scheme but was still able to give every work an individual character. Although Lehms had only intended the choir to take part in the first movement, Bach uses it not only for the final chorus but also gives it considerable parts in the aria as well. In fact the shortness of the joining secco recitative (second movement) and the vocal commencement of the third movement without the usual instrumental prelude produce almost the effect that the first three movements represent a complete one-unit work. The German words of the Te Deum form the basis of the commencing choral movement in which the soprano and horn parts in chorale form are matched against excitable vocal and instrumental counterparts. After a short recitative this moves into an aria whose many-layered construction can be simply described in the form “choral-fugue-solo-choral-fugue”. Only now after a further secco recitative does the only solo-aria of this cantata follow and with it comes the change from jubilation to a personally intimate act of prayer which is underlined even more by means of a solo obligato instrument. This was an oboe da caccia in 1726 but at a later performance a “violetta” was used (viola).