Piano Excerpts

The first version of the Reformation cantata "Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott" BWV 80b, published for the first time in a practical edition by Carus-Verlag, remained unknown to Bach scholars until well...

The text of the choral cantata, first performed on December 26, 1724, is based on Luther's translation of the early Christian hymn A solis ortus cardinem. The six-movement work contains two arias for...

The six-movement cantata is based on the song of the same name by Ahasverus Fritsch, which was first recorded in the Darmstadt songbook in 1698. It is therefore one of the choral cantatas that use a h...

Thanks to its popular choral text, Bach's choral cantata "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren" BWV 137 has long been one of the St. Thomas cantor's most frequently performed works. Unlike t...

Although "Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz" BWV 138 is based on the hymn of the same name, it is not one of Bach's chorale cantatas. In this unusual composition from Bach's first year, further choral...

Bach's choral cantata with the opening text "Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott recht kindlich verlassen kann" BWV 139 was performed for the first time on November 12, 1724 at the main church service...

Bach chose an unconventional beginning for the nine-movement cantata "Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind" BWV 153, which he composed for the Sunday after New Year in 1724, his first year in office as...

The cantata "Mein liebster Jesus ist verloren" BWV 154 was performed for the first time on January 9, 1724, the 1st Sunday after Epiphany. The structure and length of the work are unusual: it comprise...

Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe BWV 156 is one of Johann Sebastian Bach's few surviving cantatas on texts from what is known as the Picander period. As in several other cantatas on texts by this poet,...

The six-movement cantata BWV 164 was first performed in Leipzig on August 26, 1725. The text was written by Bach's Weimar cantata composer Salomon Franck and appeared in his collection "Evangelisches...

The cantata "O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad" BWV 165 is one of Bach's earliest cantata compositions and was probably first performed for the Feast of the Holy Trinity in 1715 in Weimar's Schlosskirche...

The cantata "Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe" BWV 167 is one of the first works that Bach wrote as Leipzig's Thomaskantor. The cantata is intended for the Feast of St. John and was first performed i...

The text for Bach's cantata "Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort" was published in Salomon Frank's "Evangelische Andachts-Opffer" as early as 1715, during Bach's time in Weimar. However, the concise but forceful...

Bach's cantata "Gott soll allein mein Herze haben" BWV 169 comes from the third Leipzig cantata cycle; it was first performed on October 20, 1726 on the 18th Sunday after Trinity. Recent research has...

The cantata "Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht" BWV 186 is to a certain extent the sister work of the much better-known cantata "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" BWV 147. Both were composed in Advent 1716 as...

The two-part cantata from Bach's 3rd cantata cycle was first performed on August 4, 1726 (the 7th Sunday after Trinity). The large-scale, fully scored opening chorus to a text from Psalm 104 shows Bac...

The cantata "Ich habe meine Zuversicht" BWV 188 belongs to the so-called "Picander year" and was intended for the 21st Sunday after Trinity in 1728 or 1729. The cantata has a particular problem with i...

The text of the cantata "Nun danket alle Gott" BWV 192 is based solely on the well-known hymn. It is therefore one of the few choral cantatas that do not contain any other free poetic texts. According...

The cantata "Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest" BWV 194 was composed on the occasion of the organ dedication in Störmthal on November 2, 1723. One year later and with only minor changes, the cantata was p...

Gott ist unsre Zuversicht BWV 197 was probably composed in the second half of the 1730s for an unknown wedding ceremony and features an impressive orchestra, especially in the opening chorus. The text...

Johann Sebastian Bach's "Magnificat" BWV 243 was composed in its first form in E flat at the very beginning of Bach's Leipzig tenure, possibly for the Visitation of Mary on July 2, 1723. A performance...

Antonio Vivaldi set Psalm 111 (112) "Beatus vir" three times ("Blessed is the man who fears the Lord"). Of these, two have survived that could hardly be more different: the extensive, double-choir wor...

Psalm 147 "Lauda Jerusalem" has an important place in the church year, including in vespers on Marian feasts. Antonio Vivaldi's only setting of this vesper psalm has some special features: The work is...

During the last summer of his life, Franz Schubert completed the Mass in E-flat D 950. The occasion for the composition of this Missa solemnis cannot be clarified with certainty. Schubert did not live...

Beethoven described his grandly conceived 'Missa solemnis' as 'my greatest work' and sold manuscript copies to some of the subscribers even before it had appeared in print. This Urtext edition takes i...