There are four extant cantatas that Bach composed for solo alto voice. Three were recorded by Andreas Scholl in collaboration with Philippe Herreweghe in 1997 (BWV35, 54 and 170 – Harmonia Mundi, 5/98). Now, at last, Scholl has recorded the fourth: Gott soll allein mein Herze haben (BWV169). With its larger and more varied scoring, some Bach experts even claim that this is the greatest of the four. The organ solo parts in the sinfonia and two arias are played adroitly by an organist whose identity should have been acknowledged in the booklet. First performed by a bass soloist, Ich habe genug (BWV82) was revised by Bach at least twice for different voices and occasions: the soprano version (with the oboe obbligato replaced by flute) has been recorded often, the third and last version for alto not so frequently. Scholl’s compassionate use of words and melodic sweetness in ‘Schlummert ein’ is the best recorded work he has produced for years; during the first aria Julia Schröder shapes the interweaving strings poignantly and the uncredited oboist plays tenderly. Two bells provide pictorial charm as they convey the imagery of chiming clocks in Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, a short funeral piece probably composed by Georg Melchoir Hoffmann; Decca perpetuates the aria’s old misattribution to Bach. At least Clifford Bartlett sets the matter straight in his very short booklet-note; but he does not explain that the short and sweet Bekennen will ich seinen Namen (BWV200) is Bach’s arrangement of an aria from a Passion oratorio by Stölzel. Scholl provides an article about the challenges of understanding Bach’s music (abridged from a Goldberg essay published in 2005).

Two of the other Bach alto cantatas are performed sublimely by the Canadian team of Daniel Taylor and Tafelmusik. John Abberger’s oboe d’amore and Jeanne Lamon’s violin double each other exquisitely in the softly lilting ritornello that begins Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust (BWV170), and Taylor’s gentle singing has the perfect atmosphere of sincerely beautiful piety. In subsequent arias, organist Charlotte Nediger plays dexterously and movingly, and the conclusion, ‘Mir ekelt mehr zu leben’, has an easy mood of graceful joy. The five-part string texture in the radiant opening of Widerstehe doch der Sünde (BWV54) is played deliciously and the exhortation for us to ‘Just resist sin, lest its poison seize you’ has seldom seemed so quietly persuasive.

Tafelmusik also give accomplished performances of the Second Orchestral Suite (transposed down a tone and with the flute part reassigned to violin, as some scholars believe Bach might have previously done), and one of the double harpsichord concertos with its solo parts reconditioned for oboe
and violin.