Bach Cantata no 39 Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot

 Day 5

Bach Cantata no 39 Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot

Collegium Vocale Ghent

Philipp Herreweghe

For many years Bach was a completely closed book to me - I couldn't find any way to get towards any sort of understanding of what it was all about. Given that so many fellow musicians worshiped at the altar of Bach I felt that I must be missing something but I had no idea how to unlock the secrets. It didn't help that I was discovering music just before the historically aware performance movement really got going. I recall that we had the Bach 2nd suite as a set work for music O or A level (I can't remember which) and we had the Klemperer recording in school music lessons. It seemed to me that the music was turgid and muddy and I couldn't see what the attraction was.

These days I have come, late as it is, to some understanding about the greatness of Bach but in all honesty the range of his music that I listen to regularly is still very small - the Goldberg Variations, Brandenburg 6, the first part of the Christmas Oratorio and selected movements from the violin and cello suites.

The Cantatas are very much unknown territory for me. I've played in a few of the over the years and know some of the famous ones but that it is about it. There is probably no body of work by a major composer that it is so intimidating to get to know. First of all, of course, there are so many of them. Secondly, for a non-German speaker, the titles themselves take a great deal of effort to remember and then, more importantly, the whole aesthetic is so far removed from a modern secular listening experience.  But obviously there are treasures here to be found if you apply yourself.

I selected this cantata at random. What did I make of it?  As ever with Bach the choruses are what really makes an impact. The cantata opens with a massive choral movement with recorders and oboes featuring prominently. The forward momentum and sheer richness of invention is astonishing and one can see here why for so many people Bach is the closest approach to God that there has ever been in music.

The rest of the cantata - three arias, some recitative and a final choral seem rather dwarfed by this opening chorus.  But of course that is because it was never meant to be listed to as a single concert piece. It was intended for performance within the context of of a church service, with a sermon breaking the piece into two parts. I must confess that I still struggle with the solo arias - in all three there are some beautiful touches but they can be hard going. Not having a grasp of the German text, so say nothing of the biblical context, is a handicap and it is difficult to really just sit back and enjoy the music on its own merits. But of course that was never what these cantatas are about - they demand concentration and engagement with the words and the liturgical context.

Richard Taruskin has a very thoughtful, and typically provocative, essay on aesthetics of the Bach cantatas as seen through modern eyes in Facing Up, Finally, to Bach's Dark Vision, in his book Text and Act. It is well worth reading.

I'm sure that there will be more Bach in this 365 series - the organ music is another huge body of work about which I know very little so that might be the next challenge.