Masaaki Suzuki’s 13-year cycle reaches Vol 40 with works from late 1725. Having arrived in Leipzig two and a half years earlier and composed an extraordinary quantity of cantatas, Bach had clearly lost some appetite for new excursions in this medium. The ones that do exist, however, are no less remarkable.

Lobet den Herrn fails to lift off, the opening movement lacking edge and shine in its muffled articulation, and the syncopations short on drive. Where Collegium Musicum Japan scores is in the reflective gestures of pieces like Ihr, die ihr euch Christo nennet, with its conceits on the burden of guilt for each individual who passes the distressed traveller. This and the Reformation work Gott der Herr ist Sinn und Schild bring out Suzuki’s instinct for the unfolding of an extended fugal movement. The choir truly glows here. The work becomes even more involving with Robin Blaze producing, in his ideal register, a delectable reading of the first aria.

This volume is not a highlight of the series, possibly because the works, in toto, are less unified in concept than others. But there are several fine scena arias: from the rocks which split asunder in the opening of Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort to “Kapital und Interessen” which refers to debts to be paid back to God. The analogy with Leipzig’s business world would not have gone unnoticed then and it resonates, just a little, now.