Luogo e data di registrazione		Amsterdam (Holland) - Giugno 1972
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SKW 6/1-2 | 2 LPs - durata 36' 57" - 36' 51" | (p) 1973 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Teldec Classics | LC 6706 | 8.35032 ZL | 2 CDs - durata 36' 57" - 36' 51" | (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		In questo volume, nel primo Long Playing, è presente anche La Cantate BWV 21 a cura del Concentus Musicus Wien diretto da Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

INTRODUCTION by Alfred Dürr “Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe” (BWV 22) and “Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn” (BWV 23) are intimately bound up with one another as regards the history of their composition. Both were composed for the same Sunday, the 7th February 1723, and perhaps even performed in the same service as a quasi two-part work. Both cantatas refer to one section each of the Gospel reading for the day (Luke 18, 31-43), the decision of Jesus to go to Jerusalem, where they will crucify him, and the healing of a blind man at the wayside who begs that Jesus, the son of David, might have mercy on him. Cantata No. 22 takes up the first half of this story. The text, introduced by a Gospel quotation, begs in the name of Christian witness that Jesus might accept him too among His followers. For the introductory movement with its setting of a biblical text (usually a striking saying of Jesus but here a narration) Bach chooses the form Arioso-Chorus, which is justified not so much by the text as by his intention also to use St. Thomas’s Choir. Of the work’s two arias the first is characterized by the expressive musical rhetoric of the solo oboe; the second reminds us, in its dance-like character, that Bach at that time was still Court Conductor to the Prince of Köthen. Cantata No. 23, on the other hand, appears to be a work of deep personal commitment and unusual expressive power. Its text links up with the blind man’s prayer for mercy and, alluding to Psalm 145, 15, applies it to the present time and the assembled congregation: not only the eyes of the blind man, but “the eyes of all” wait for the Lord. In the opening movement Bach combines the instrumental trio of two oboes and continuo and the vocal duet into skillful quintet writing of deeply moving intensity. The recitative “Ach, gehe nicht voriiber” (Ah, do not pass by) is heard against an instrumental quotation of the chorale melody “Christe, du Lamm Gottes”. The prayer of the blind man for mercy is thus raised to the level of a desire of all Christendom, and the relationship of the content to Christ’s Passion is established. The hymnic, expressive chorus “Aller Augen” has a form which is not encountered very often with Bach. The full choral setting is heard seven times, shifting from key to key and interrupted by instrumental interludes and duet sections for tenor and bass which are sometimes written in canon. This rondo form with its multiple repetitions is exceedingly powerful in effect; the movement has by far outgrown its models, the dance-like final choruses of secular cantatas of homage. In Bach’s full score this forms the conclusion of the cantata. In the performing material there follows an unusually earnest final chorale, “Christe, du Lamm Gottes”, with its three verses composed in continuity. Its reference back to the second movement imparts special formal unity to the cantata. It culminates in its middle verse (“Andante”), like the central structure of a baroque building, where the melody is presented by the soprano, oboes and first violin in canon.