Download JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Cantata No. 51

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Cantata No. 51, “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!” BWV 51
Born: March 21, 1685, in Eisenach
Died: July 28, 1750, in Leipzig
Works composed: 1730
Bach’s 200-plus surviving cantatas give ample proof of his comprehensive knowledge and
fluency in writing for the human voice. The popular cantata, “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!”
(“Praise God in Every Nation!”) is a showpiece for solo soprano, and a veritable concerto for
equally capable trumpeter (not unlike “And the trumpet shall sound” from Part III of Handel’s
Messiah). Dating from relatively early in his long tenure at the Thomas Church in Leipzig (from
1723 to his death in 1750), this is an irresistibly catchy and festive work. Since opera was off
limits to a Lutheran, church-affiliated composer of the first half of the 18th century, Bach
invested this and other cantatas with a level of shining virtuosity that would have been equally at
home on the operatic stage. Albert Schweitzer described this work as a “brilliant coloratura piece
for soprano and trumpet, full of stirring life, as the instrumental theme in the first aria at once
makes clear.”
An unstoppably energetic opening movement leads, after a palette-cleansing recitative, to a
lovely aria one commentator likened to “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music! In the
fourth section, the soprano sings the chorale melody “Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren” (“Glory, and
praise with honor”) and sails without a break into the concluding “Alleluia,” an exuberant paean
of praise and a fittingly virtuosic display piece capped by a ringing high “C” at the movement’s
climactic point.
Program Notes © 2015 Steven Lowe