Bach's greatest cantata hits

Of the over 1,120 entries in the Bach Works Catalogue (BWV), this cantata is No. 1. Bach composed it for the feast of the Annunciation. Based on one of the best-known hymns by Martin Luther, it is pure splendor, ranging from gentle violin sounds to a swinging, dancing mood of jubilation.

Martin Luther wrote the corresponding hymn in 1524. Despite the cheerful subject of advent, the sound is somewhat dark. Bach wrote at least three cantatas on the basis of this song, the earliest in 1714 in Weimar. He starts out by developing the musical motif in the style of a French overture — very modern music in those days — which heightens the work's sense of dignity.

Around the middle of this piece, you hear a gentle, calm melody which is one of Bach's catchiest tunes. The premise of this well-known cantata: the connection between Jesus and the individual soul is depicted metaphorically as a wedding.

Weary of life, the person of faith longs for death and for life in the hereafter. The work dates from 1727, was written in Leipzig, and the text probably came from the pen of a 24-year-old student of theology by the name of Christoph Birkmann. Nothing unusual about that: Bach frequently set texts by little-known poets to music.

Just after Bach, then a court organist in Weimar, was named concertmaster in 1714, he wrote this cantata about Christ's farewell to his disciples and about the joy of one day meeting again. Despite the depressing title, the piece has an upbeat message that's fitting for Jubilate Sunday, the third Sunday after Easter.

Another work by the young Bach in Weimar. Rather than hope or consolation, the subject is fear of the fires of hell. To illustrate, Bach finds the appropriately dramatic sounds. "My quite terrified heart trembles / so that my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth," the choir sings. At the end, there's a ray of hope, with a plea of deliverance from life's suffering and temptations.

"One of the most extraordinary and inspired of Bach's works," in the assessment of the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Consisting of two parts, the cantata with 11 movements is comparatively long. The moods range from a motif suggesting a gentle sigh to a flood of triumphant joy.

"The raging serpent, the hellish dragon / storms against heaven with furious vengeance," goes the text, which continues: "But Michael conquers / and the host that surrounds him / overthrows Satan's cruelty." The story of this apocalyptic meeting is depicted in music on St. Michael's Day that commemorates Michael the archangel.