Luogo e data di registrazione		Doopsgezinde Kerk, Haarlem (Holland) - Gennaio 1985
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Teldec "Das Alte Werk" | 6.35657 EX | 2 LPs - durata 46' 16" - 49' 17" | (p) 1986 | DIGITAL DMM
	Edizione CD		Teldec Classics | LC 6706 | 8.35657 ZL | 2 CDs - durata 46' 16" - 49' 17" | (p) 1986 | DDD
	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 161, BWV 162 e BWV 163 a cura del Concentus Musicus Wien diretto da Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

INTRODUCTION by Gerhard Schuhmacher »Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn« (BWV 157) was written to commission for a memorial service held on 6th February 1727 at Pomßen near Leipzig in honour of Johann Christoph von Ponickau, a Privy Councillor and Chamberlain at the Saxon court who had died on 31st October 1726. The text is by the poet Picander, alias Christian Friedrich Henrici. BWV 157 has only been preserved in a score and a set of parts copied out by Christian Friedrich Penzel (1737-1801), Kantor of the Leipzig Thomaskirche and subsequently Kantor in Merseburg. The score (circa 1755) and the parts (in 1760s) were produced independently of one another, and there are major discrepancies between them. Klaus Hofmann of the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen has shown that the original of 1727 did not form  the basis of the copied score of 1755, and has published a reconstuction of the conjectural original version (HänsslerVerlag 1984). The cantata is scored for chamber orchestra. The duet for tenor and bass is accompanied by the soft, muted sounds of the flute, oboe d’amore, viola d’amore and continuo, which nonetheless produce grandiose chamber music. The tenor aria too with oboe d’amore and continuo contains an unusually large amount of instrumental music, and a good deal of space is given to text interpretation in the juxtaposition of voice and instrument (»halte«, »Gewalt«, »ewig«). After the expressive accompagnato the bass aria continues the idea musically with recitative and arioso. The chorus for the closing chotale was without doubt composed of just a few voices in 1727. »Der Friede sei mit dite (BWV 158) is one of Bach’s unusual cantatas, not least because of its shortness and sequence of movements. Neither the author of the text nor the circumstances of its composition are known, and the cover of the score, which only exists as a copy, names the third day of Easter and the feast of Candlemas (the Purification of the Virgin) as the liturgical occasions for which the cantata was intended. BWV 158 probably consists of a number of parts, and only a fragment has survived. Our knowledge of Bach cantatas suggests that a second aria at least is missing before the final chorale. The focal point of the work is the great bass aria with solo violin »Welt ade! ich bin dein müdes, to which the soprano sings the chorale of the same name line-for-line. In its instrumental symbolism and expressive power the writing here is related to the aria »Erbarme dich« from the later St Matthew Passion. »Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem« (BWV 159) was probably first composed for the 27th February 1729, just a few weeks before the premiere of the St Matthew Passion, even though the text itself belongs to the cantatas Picander wrote in 1728. The work begins with a highly expressive dialogue, in which the devout soul (alto) has an accompagnato recitative, Jesus (bass) only having an arioso with continuo accompaniment; (in the St Matthew Passion the words of Jesus are accompagnato, i.e. accompanied by the orchestra, throughout). The combination of aria and chorale is one of Bach’s creations, an the moving alto aria »Ich folge dir nach« with the verse »Ich will hier bei dir tehen« (to the melodie »O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden«) inserted line-by-line by the soprano and oboe together is of great beauty. The main theme of the great bass aria »Es ist vollbracht«, the last of Jesus’s seven words on the cross, radiates tranquillity and peace in its calmness, like the closing chorale. (The cantata BWV 160 »Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt« is by Georg Philipp Telemann.)