Johann Sebastian Bach - Cantatas BWV 32-34 / Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen; Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ; O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe / Bach-Ensemble, Helmuth Rilling / Hänssler Classic Audio CD 1999 / CD 92.011

UPC 4010276015116

Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (Dearest Jesus, my desire), BWV 32, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the dialogue cantata (Concerto in Dialogo) in Leipzig for the first Sunday after Epiphany and first performed it on 13 January 1726 as part of his third cantata cycle.

Bach composed the cantata in his third year as Thomaskantor on a text which Georg Christian Lehms, a court poet in Darmstadt, had published already in 1711. Lehms derived from the prescribed gospel, the finding in the Temple, a dialogue. Instead of a parent missing a son, as in the gospel, an allegorical Soul (soprano) misses Jesus (bass). The motifs of the story, the loss and anxious search, are placed in a more general situation in which the listener can identify with the Soul. As Lehms did not provide a closing chorale, Bach chose the twelfth and final stanza of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Weg, mein Herz, mit den Gedanken".

Bach structured the cantata in six movements, first alternating arias and recitative, then uniting the voices in recitative and aria, finally a chorale. The two soloists are supported by an intimate Baroque instrumental ensemble of oboe, strings and continuo. The oboe accompanies the soprano, a solo violin the bass, both play when the voices are united.

Tracklist:

01-06  Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen - Dearest Jesus, My Desiring   BWV 32   22:53

07-12  Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ - Alone To Thee, Lord Jesus Christ   BWV 33   21:01

13-17  O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe - O Fire Everlasting, O Fountain Of Loving   BWV 34   19:01