Motet: Gabrieli's setting of the first few sentences from Psalm 51 is from his first large collection, the Symphoniae Sacrae, published in 1587. The works in this collection are transitional in style, from the Renaissance motet style to the full-blown baroque polychoral styl e in his last two sets, the Symphoniae Sacrae 1597 and 1615. For all of its youth, this wonderful piece captures the grandeur of this most public of Psalms.

Cantata: The cantata BWV 46, "Schaet doch,æ is one of the most complicated and difficult works from Bach's first season in Leipzig. It is conceived in a spirit of such idealism that one imagines that the first performance of it and certain other cantatas from this cycle probably went quite badly. Certainly Bach never again wrote such demanding works for Sunday morning performances. It begins with a grand chorus setting from Lamentations. The unique orchestration of two recorders, two English Horns and an unusual slide trumpet, give the work its slightly hollow and characteristic sound. The first part of the chorus was transferred many years later to the Qui tollis in the B Minor Mass. The sound of the two recorders continues in the long accompanied recitative for tenor anticipating the style of many of the accompanied recitatives in the St Matthew Passion. The stormy bass aria with trumpet and strings is exciting but extraordinarily virtuosic for both the trumpet and the bass singer. The second aria has the unusual orchestration of the two English Horns as a bass line with the two obbligato recorders. There is a funny miniaturized version of the bass aria material in the center of this aria but instead of bombastic trumpet and strings it is played by the recorders. The chorale has as an obbligato again the wailing of the two recorders that we have heard throughout the piece.

©Craig Smith

Translation