Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde, BWV 83
Cantata for the Feast of the Purification
First performance: Leipzig, February 2, 1724
Soloists: Alto, tenor, bass
Chorus (S-A-T-B) in final chorale only
Orchestra: 2 oboes, 2 horns in F, solo violin, strings, continuo
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Aria (alto)
Intonazione e Recitativo (bass)
Aria (tenor)
Recitative (alto)
Chorale
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Bach's cantata Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde (Joyful time in the new covenant) was written for the Feast of the Purification on February 2, 1724. In addition to its three soloists (alto, tenor and bass), this cantata features virtuosic parts for a solo violin in its first and third movements. The strong, cheerful tone of the cantata is established at the outset in an alto aria with the full, bright sound of two oboes, two horns in F, solo violin, strings and continuo.
The second movement, an "Intonation and Recitative," is a unique work among the Bach cantatas. In it, the bass soloist intones the chant for the Nunc dimittis or Song of Simeon from the gospel of Luke, a text that was related to the gospel reading for that day's service. It sings of finding liberation in death. Against the chant, the violins and violas in unison play a two-voice canon with the bass instruments, the two parts imitating each other sometimes exactly, sometimes more freely. In the middle of this movement, the chant and canon are momentarily broken off, while the bass sings fragments of recitative, as if interpolating a commentary.
There follows an aria for tenor, "Eile, Herz, voll Freudigkeit" ("Hurry, my heart, full of joy"), in which there is once more a virtuosic violin solo, this time in running sixteenth-note triplets. Then a brief secco recitative for the alto soloist leads into the final chorale, which takes one verse from Martin Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis.
Boston Baroque Performances
Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde, BWV 83
March 18, 1983
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Jeffrey Gall, counter-tenor
Frank Kelley, tenor
John Osborn, bass