The four cantatas gathered here were all composed for specific\nevents such as funerals and weddings. Like all the sacred cantatas,\nthey contain biblical references and include chorales, but Bach’s\nsacred occasional pieces are independent works and did not form\npart of his cantata cycles for the Sundays and feast days of the\nchurch year. This makes it to some extent difficult to place the\nindividual works in context: for instance two of cantatas included\nhere were intended for wedding ceremonies, and one for a funeral,\nbut we do not know the circumstances regarding the fourth piece,\nNun danket alle Gott, BWV 192. Similarly, we do know the identity\nof the person whose death was mourned to the music of Ich lasse\ndich nicht… BWV 157, but the names of the couples whose weddings\nwere accompanied by BWV 195 and BWV 120a respectively are unknown.\nNevertheless the music speaks for itself – BWV 195 suitably joyous\nwith timpani and trumpets, and BWV 157 expressing a mellowness and\nquiet confidence in eternal life through its exquisite\nchamber-musical combination of solo instruments: transverse flute,\noboe d’amore and viola d’amore. As elsewhere in his production,\nBach would at times reuse material from other compositions, and a\nstriking example is the Sinfonia in BWV 120a, a reworking for organ\nsolo and orchestra of the famous prelude from the E major violin\npartita. With another four volumes yet to come, the cycle of\ncantatas initiated by Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan\nin 1995 is nearing completion, without any signs of flagging, as\nwitness the warm welcome extended to Volume 50 by reviewers\nremarking upon the consistently high quality of both\ninterpretations and performances throughout the series.

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