Luogo e data di registrazione		Amsterdam (Holland) - Marzo / Settembre 1978
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | 6.35364 EX | 2 LPs - durata 59' 42" - 44' 09" | (p) 1979 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Teldec Classics | LC 6706 | 8.35364 ZL | 2 CDs - durata 59' 42" - 44' 09" | (c) 1989 | 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 sono presenti anche La Cantate BWV 84, BWV 85, BWV 86  e BWV 87 a cura del Concentus Musicus Wien diretto da Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

INTRODUCTION by Ludwig Finscher »Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden« (BWV 88) was written for the fifth Sunday after Trinity (21st July) 1726, almost immediately after Bach had introduced a series of works by his cousin in Meiningen, Johann Ludwig Bach, to the St. Thomas Church instead of his own cantatas. At least the form of the anonymous text - as with the cantatas BWV 39, 187, 45, 102 and 17, composed more or less around the same period - corresponds precisely with that of this group of inserted works. Thus it seems reasonable to assume that Bach instructed a Leipzig poet to write texts in this form, or that he himself undertook the task. The focal point of these texts is a quotation from the Sunday gospel in question, symmetrically framed by two arias and two recitatives. Before the first recitative there is a quotation from the Old Testament, the sense of which is related to the passage from the gospel, while the second recıtative is followed by the concluding chorus. On the whole this is an arrangement which is not only satisfying from the musical point of view, but theologically is also eminently significant (with the New Testament at the centre, the Old Testament at the beginning and the congregation hymn at the end). Bach’s composition places almost too much emphasis upon the quotation from the Old Testament, in the sense that it transposes its graphic language into two broad and splendidly painted genre scenes, a marine and a hunting piece. Beneath their colourful surface they are extremely artistically designed, and are set in contrast to each other. The short but harmoniously rich first recitative leads on to the tenor aria which, without a ritornello, answers the question of the recitative. It is not until after the contrasting vocal sections, held together by the motif treatment of the oboe d’amore, that the ritornello is subsequently featured as an abbreviated da capo, with the oboe d’amore adopting the role of the vocal part. The Gospel quotation is introduced by a two-bar Evangelist arioso and is then taken up in the bass (the »vox Christi«) as a solemn, four-part arioso (A A’ A A’’) above a quasi ostinato bass. The duet once more reverts to the motet-like sequence form and the technique of varying repetition which dominate the entire cantata and give Bach an opportunity of declaiming the text with unusual intensity and ever fresh shading. Two text sections, the second being repeated, are arranged in an artistically polyphonic three-movement setting (A A’A’’). The final chorus after the second recitative is kept in a comparatively simple song-like style. »Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim?« (BWV 89) has its origins in the first Leipzig annual cantata set and was composed for the 24th October, 1723 (22nd Sunday after Trinity). The text, again anonymous, begins with a quotation from the Old Testament which hints at the Sunday Gospel reading, and is then construed in a double sequence of recitative and aria. The impact of the Old Testament speech inspired Bach to compose a grandiose gloomy introductory piece. This is a bass arioso of the highest rhetorical power around which oboes, strings and continuo (the horn has only a tone-supporting function), three contrary motifs, sighs, pathos-laden chordal breaks and murmuring semiquavers develop in constantly new constellations. The two arias stand out from this powerful movement on account of markedly simple instrumentation, but at the same time are designed as a contrasting pair. The contralto aria (only with continuo) conjures up once more in D minor the terrors of the Old Testament court (not by coincidence with the aid of that already slightly archaic theme type, ascribed in BWV 106 to the »old alliance«. The soprano aria in B-flat major with obbligato oboe, prepared by way of the arioso concluding phrase of the second recitative, sings of the hope in Christ’s redeeming sacrifice in almost dancelike grace and in a relaxed mood. The concluding chorus is again a simple, song-like setting, although not entirely without text-construing, harmonious surprises. »Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende« (BWV 90) was composed for the 25th Sunday after Trinity, that is to say, 14th November, 1723 and thus also belongs to the first Leipzig annual cantata set. The anonymous text concentrates on the visions of horror of the final period before the last judgement; the hope of the »chosen peoples is not uttered until the second recitative and the chorus. The deadly earnestness of this text is matched by the almost gloomy composition, which with uncustomary persistence circles around D minor (the principle key) and g minor, and which in the two chief arias dominating the work depict the text emotions in a highly drastic fashion: the »snatching«, terrible end and the sinfulness of man in vehement coloraturas, chromatic runs, torn off phrases and catapulted declamatory motifs in the highest tenor pitch; the vision of the zealous judge of the world in grandiose war music, completely built up on signal motifs, with concertante trumpet, the symbolic instrument of war fare. The two secco recitatives are brief and unadorned, but worked out down to the last text detail, declamatory and harmoniously. In particular the first, which contrasts God’s goodness and the world’s ingratitude, displays an abundance and power of musical depiction of the text which were not customary even for Bach. The concluding chorus is song-like setting which begins in simple fashion and then increases in harmonious splendour, culminating in one of Bach’s most astounding harmony applications (inserted D-flat major on the word »Stündlein«) and eventually fading out on the sustained D major (»ewig bei dir seins).