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Johann David HEINICHEN (1683 - 1729): "Gott ist unser Zuversicht - German Sacred Cantatas"
Magdalene Harer, soprano;
Bernadette Beckermann, contralto;
Tobias Hunger, tenor;
Felix Schwandtke, bass
Sächsisches Vocalensemble; Batzdorfer Hofkapelle
Dir: Mathias Jung
rec: Jan 28 - 30, 2022, Dresden, Annenkirche
CPO - 555 543-2 (© 2021) (69'07")
Liner-notes: E/D; lyrics - translations: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
Scores
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Der Herr ist nahe bei denen, die zerbrochenen Herzens sind;
Der Segen des Herrn machet rein;
Gelobet sei der Herr;
Gott ist unser Zuversicht
Laß dichs nicht irren
[SV] Clara Beyer, Patricia Hoffmann, Katharina Jäckel, Cornelia Jung, Elisabeth Mücksch, Rosa Üregi, soprano;
Jana Baltrusch, Christin Haupt, Katharina Rosenkranz, Katherina Schmidt, contralto;
Martin Schreyer, alto;
Kim Grote, Fritz Herrmann, Gregor Hirschmann, Michael Schwämmlein, Johann Weinberger, tenor;
Johannes Bachmann, Thomas Gläßer, Johannes Klein, Lukas Alois Roth, Carl-Johann Winkler, bass
[BH] Daniel Deuter, Hedwig Ohse, Beate Voigt, Helga Schmidtmayer, Franziska Graefe, violin;
Lena Rademann, Lea Strecker, viola;
Patrick Sepec, cello
Sven Rössel, double bass;
Eva Maria Horn, bassoon;
Stefan Maass, Anne-Kathrin Tietke, lute;
Tobias Schade, organ
For a long time the sacred music that was written in Protestant Germany in the last decades of the 17th and the first decades of the 18th century was given little attention. The exceptions were the early cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and the cantatas and motets by other members of the Bach dynasty. More recently the cantatas by Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Kuhnau were recorded complete. Even so, there is still much to discover, as the disc under review shows. Very recently I reviewed a disc of the Ensemble Polyharmonique with a cantata by Johann David Heinichen and three cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann, which date from about the same time. It is a bit odd that both discs, released on the same label, include the same cantata by Heinichen, Der Herr ist nahe bei denen, die zerbrochenes Herzens sind.
It makes much sense to shed light on the cantatas of Heinichen. He is best-known as the composer of instrumental music and of vocal works, either secular in Italian, or sacred in Latin. The latter were intended for liturgical use in the private Catholic chapel of the Saxon Elector Frederic August I and his wife. However, his musical activities had started in Leipzig, where he first attended the Thomasschule, receiving his musical education from Johann Schelle and later Johann Kuhnau, and then enrolled at Leipzig University to study law. At that time he participated in the two collegia musica, one of which was under the direction of Telemann. This collegium musicum was responsible for the music in the Neue Kirche, and it is likely that Heinichen's cantatas were intended for performance there. However, that is hard to prove as none of his cantatas has been preserved in autograph. Most of them are known in copies from the library of the Fürsten- und Landesschule St. Augustin Grimma and the collection of the North German Kantor Heinrich Bokemeyer. According to New Grove Heinichen has left fifteen German cantatas; Gerhard Poppe, in his liner-notes to the present disc, mentions seventeen.
The disc opens with Gelobet sei der Herr; as all the cantatas on this disc, it is scored for four voices, strings and basso continuo. It is a specimen of a genre, known as concerto-aria cantata; a number of cantatas by Buxtehude are of this type. It opens with a dictum (a literal quotation from the Bible), set in concerto form, and repeated at the end. In between are arias for solo voices. This particular cantata is intended for St John's Day (24 June). It opens with a sinfonia, and then the first section is a setting of two verses from the Canticle of Zachariah, the father of St John the Baptist. This canticle is paraphrased in the solo sections; three of them and the chorus between the second and third open and close with the same phrase: "Praise be to God". Before the opening concerto is repeated, the tutti sing a prayer: "Enlighten us, show us mercy and peace, we thus give thanks with a joyful song".
Laß dichs nicht irren is a cantata for the first Sunday after Trinity; the Gospel of that Sunday is the parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus (Luke 16). The cantata opens with a chorus on two verses from Psalm 49: "So don’t be dismayed when the wicked grow rich and their homes become ever more splendid. For when they die, they take nothing with them. Their wealth will not follow them into the grave." It is followed by a recitative and aria for tenor, and that makes this cantata the most 'modern' in the programme, as Gerhard Poppe puts it. However, the aria is not a dacapo aria as we know it from later cantatas. It consists of two sections, each in binary form; the first half is repeated in each of them. Notable is the accompaniment of the basso continuo, which from start to finish is staccato. As the text is about the death of the rich man and of Lazarus, this may well be a depiction of funeral bells. It is followed by another chorus, again on a verse from a Psalm (37). Then we get two short arias for alto and bass respectively. The chorus which closes the cantata has the form of a chorale.
Der Segen des Herrn macht reich is written for the 5th Sunday after Trinity; the Gospel of the day is from Luke 5: Peter's great catch of fish. It consists of five sections: the first, third and fifth, scored for the tutti, are quotations from the Bible. The opening section is taken from the book of Proverbs (ch 10, vs22): "The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it." This is used to emphasize that material well-being is a blessing of God, as the second section says; this has the form of a chorale, but cannot be identified as such. The second biblical quotation is from the sermon on the Mount: "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else". It is followed by the 10th stanza of the hymn Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz. The cantata closes with a quotation from St Paul's first letter to Timothy: "But godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."
It is not clear - at least the liner-notes don't indicate - for which Sunday or feast-day Gott ist unser Zuversicht is intended. As tt is a setting of Psalm 46 - "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" - it may have been usable at different occasions. The opening section is for soli and tutti; it is followed by two sections for two solo voices (TB and SA respectively) with tutti, a solo for tenor and a section for solo voices and tutti. The cantata closes with a section for bass and tutti. Two sections stand out for eloquent text expression; not by coincidence these are text passages that have dramatic traits: "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea" / "He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire." Notable is that this Psalm includes the word "sela" three times. Its meaning has not been discovered as yet. Heinichen did include it in his setting. That was quite common; we find it also in, for instance, Psalm settings by Heinrich Schütz.
Der Herr ist nahe bei denen, die zerbrochenes Herzens sind is a setting of a text by an unknown author and is intended for the third day of Easter. It opens with a sonata, which is followed by a dictum, Psalm 34, vs18: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." This is followed by four arias; the cantata closes with the sixth stanza of the hymn Jesu meine Freude. In the opening chorus, on the word "zerbrochenes [Herzens]" (brokehearted), the music is literally broken up, and something comparable is the case on the word "zerschlagen" (crushed). The second section is fugal. In the arias several words are singled out through coloratura, such as "fröhlich" (joyful) and "Freuden" (joys). In the bass aria the strings mainly play descending figures, reflecting the text "Jesus, who suffered the wound of the serpents (...)". The hymn which closes the cantata has the form of a chorale arrangement; we find this also in cantatas by, for instance, Johann Ludwig Bach, which are from about the same time.
As I mentioned, the latter cantata has been recorded by the Ensemble Polyharmonique; the main difference is that here the tutti sections are performed by a choir of twenty voices, in which the soloists don't participate. I prefer the one-voice-per-part performance of Polyharmonique, which may be closer to the historical truth, but which especially creates a stronger coherence in the sections in which soli and tutti alternate. Otherwise I have nothing but praise for the performances offered by four outstanding singers, an excellent choir and a fine instrumental ensemble. They are stylistically completely convincing, and impressively demonstrate the quality of these cantatas by Heinichen. I very much hope that one of these ensembles - or another one of the same quality - takes care of the remaining German cantatas.
This disc is a major contribution to our knowledge of the history of the German sacred cantata.
Johan van Veen (© 2024)
Relevant links:
Bernadette Beckermann
Magdalene Harer
Felix Schwandtke
Sächsisches Vocalensemble
Batzdorfer Hofkapelle