Between 1717 and 1723 Bach worked as Capellmeister
at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen. The Prince was a lover
of music and, indeed, played the viola da gamba. He recruited
a number of leading musicians to play in his court orchestra.
As the very interesting booklet notes tell us, Bach remained
in contact with the Cöthen court even after moving to Leipzig,
making several return visits, in particular for the celebrations
of Leopold’s birthday, which fell in December. In November 1728,
however, the prince died suddenly, just before his 34th
birthday. It fell to Bach to write music for his funeral, which
did not take place until the following March and he composed
a substantial Trauer-Ode. The music is lost though some copies
of the libretto, by Bach’s frequent collaborator, Picander,
have survived. Despite the fact that he had several month’s
notice of the funeral, it appears that Bach did not write a
brand new score for this occasion. Instead, scholars have concluded
that he recycled music from two recently-composed major works.
These scores are the St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (1727) and
the funeral ode Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl,
BWV 198, written in the same year for the funeral of Christiane
Eberhardine, wife of Elector Augustus the Strong. In fact it
has been noted by various Bach experts that Picander’s words
fit well the various arias that Bach is thought to have used,
suggesting that the libretto was fashioned round the music rather
than vice versa. Inevitably, however, what we have here is a
conjectural reconstruction or, as Robert Mealy puts it in the
booklet, “the result of much detective work and a certain amount
of daring re-invention.” I presume that the latter part of that
comment includes the recitatives which Mealy tells us “have
been re-invented by Parrott, following Bach’s own practices,
and drawing on material surrounding the original arias”. Incidentally,
this reconstruction has not been created for this recording;
the fruits of Parrott’s detective work were first performed
in concert as long ago as 2004.
What we have here is a substantial work, lasting well over an
hour and consisting of twenty-four separate items, though this
includes one short chorus that is heard twice. There are nine
solo arias and most of the rest is passages of recitative for
there are just five numbers for chorus. One of the fascinations
is hearing such familiar music as the arias ‘Buß und reu’,’Ich
will bei meinem Jesu wachen’, ‘Mache dich, mein Herze, rein’
and ‘Erbarme dich’ not only sung to new words but appearing
in a different context. I have to say that the results seem
to me to be persuasive, especially since we know that Bach,
like so many composers of the Baroque era, was an inveterate
recycler of his own music – and that of others. Helpfully, the
booklet includes a table showing the source of each of the thirteen
musical “borrowings” from the two works. The recitatives may
not be “authentic” Bach but Andrew Parrott has done a good and
idiomatic job, based on his great knowledge of Bach, and these
passages convince.
As to the performance itself, as usual Parrott follows his one-voice-per-part
approach to Bach and his four soloists, Emily Van Evera, Clare
Wilkinson, Charles Daniels and Thomas Meglioranza, do the chorus
work as well. The only exceptions to this are the final chorus,
which uses the music of the last chorus of the St. Matthew Passion,
and the tenor aria fitted to the music of ’Ich will bei meinem
Jesu wachen’. For both of these Parrott deploys extra singers
so that he has two voices per part. I know there are many who
dislike hearing Bach’s choruses sung in this way – generally
I too am in that camp – but here the chorus work is so limited
that it doesn’t really matter very much.
Of the soloists, I think Clare Wilkinson makes the best showing.
I particularly enjoyed her expressive delivery of ‘Erhalte mich
Gott’ (‘Erbarme dich’), which also benefits from a fine violin
obbligato, played by Kati Debretzeni, I think. Emily Van Evera
sings intelligently though to my ears there’s a slight edge
to her tone that not all listeners may like. Charles Daniels
is a highly experienced Bach singer and I enjoyed the sensitivity
of his singing though I did wonder if he could and should have
been a little more robust in his delivery of ‘Geh, Leopold,
zu Deiner Ruh’ (’Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen’). Having said
that, perhaps Picander’s
words justify a more intimate approach than might be the case
in the St. Matthew Passion? Thomas Meglioranza is described
as a bass but his is a pretty light voice, leaning very much
towards a baritone. He opens the work with the aria ‘Laß, Leopold,
Dich nicht begraben’ (‘Komm, sußes Kreuz’) and, frankly, I found
his voice lacking in body here; I longed for the extra weight
of tone that Peter Harvey or Peter Kooij might have brought
to the proceedings. However, later on in ‘Bleibet nun in eurer
Ruh’ (‘Mache dich, mein Herze, rein’) his voice has more tonal
body, which is pleasing.
Incidentally, that first bass aria features a viola da gamba
obbligato, surely a nod by Bach to his gamba-playing patron.
It’s well played, as are all the obbligatos. Parrott’s team
of a dozen instrumentalists acquit themselves very well indeed,
providing consistently stylish and exert accompaniments.
We can never know exactly what music was heard at the obsequies
of Prince Leopold but this reconstruction brings scholarship
and highly informed speculation to bear and offers a convincing
recreation of Bach’s final musical offering to his late master.
John Quinn
Taverner Consort and Players/Andrew Parrott