Pygmalion & Raphaël Pichon - Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets (2020)

Much as, for many listeners, the mere fact that this new Bach motets recording is from Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion will be reason enough to give it a spin, there's actually an even more noteworthy draw to this particular programme: that interspersed between the six Bach motets are three sixteenth century masterpieces drawn from the Florilegium Portense, a collection of almost 365 choral works from 58 leading sixteenth century Italian and German composers which was first published in 1618, and which in Bach's day was on the shelves of most central German choir schools – regularly used within the services, and a constant source of compositional inspiration too. What's more, the relationship with Bach himself is proven, because as Leipzig kantor he purchased new copies of the collection both in 1729 and 1737; and if you narrow in on Bach's handful of motets then the link deepens, because while the composition of his hundreds of cantatas was dictated by the liturgical calendar and often involved working with a librettist, his motets were composed under no such strictures, leaving him genuinely at liberty to draw on the Florilegium Portense in whichever way he fancied.
Tracklist
01. Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230 (6:12)
02. Promptuarium musicum, Pars Tertia: Osculetur me osculo oris sui (4:33)
03. Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229 (8:48)
04. Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 (7:23)
05. Cantiones sacrae de praecipuis festis totius anni: Tulerunt Dominum meum (Bonus Track) (4:10)
06. Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir, BWV 228 (7:35)
07. Opus musicum: Ecce quomodo moritur justus (4:12)
08. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Jesu, meine Freude" (3:47)
09. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Unter deinen Schirmen" (1:15)
10. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Denn das Gesetz des Geistes" (0:58)
11. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Trotz dem alten Drachen" (2:24)
12. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich" (2:53)
13. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Weg mit allen Schätzen" (1:04)
14. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "So aber Christus in euch ist" (1:51)
15. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Gute Nacht, o Wesen" (4:13)
16. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "So nun der Geist" (1:18)
17. Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227: "Weicht, ihr Trauergeister" (1:24)
18. Symphoniae sacrae I: Jubilate Deo (5:20)
19. Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225: "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" (4:27)
20. Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225: "Wie sich sein Vater erbarmet" - "Gott, nimm dich ferner unser an" (5:17)
21. Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225: "Lobet den Herrn in seinen Taten" (3:10)