Posts tagged ‘music’
April 08, 2009
The Bach cantata Ihr werdet weinen und heulen BWV 103 composed in 1725 features a rarely heard instrument. In Soli Deo Gloria Cantatas Vol 24, John Elliot Gardiner notes that BWV 103 “opens with a glittering fantasia for a concertante violin doubling a sixth flute — a soprano recorder in D.”
I have thoroughly enjoyed this performance by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists since its release in 2005.
This week, I listened to Masaki Suzuki’s Bach Collegium Japan recording of BWV 103. As before, the soprano recorder appeared in the opening movement, played by Dan Laurin. From the SACD notes, “For the introductory chorus Bach chose a most unusual sound image: the normal orchestral strings are joined by two oboi d’amore and a flauto piccolo, in modern terminology a descant recorder in d″ (Bach gave this rarely used instrument a concertante solo part of the utmost virtuosity).”
With the third movement, the alto aria, Suzuki took a different course. Rather than a concertante violin as we heard with the English Baroque Soloists, we hear a flauto piccolo “once more making its presence felt with a virtuosic obbligato line”. We have stumbled upon a different cantata.
A glance at the score uncovers the mystery. For that instrumental part Bach provided an option of “Violino concertante o Flauto traverso”.
The composer may have had various reasons to give the conductor this latitude. Ongoing reinterpretation has kept Bach’s work alive. Did Bach realize that by deliberately not over specifying his intentions in this cantata, he would enrich his legacy this many centuries later?