It's not that
Bach wrote the same cantata several hundred times. Each and every cantata is scored for a unique ensemble, has a unique sequence of movements, sets a different text to a different chorale melody, and explores different musical and spiritual issues. It's that we, in our musical and spiritual puniness, can't begin to comprehend the height, the breadth, and the depth of
Bach's achievement. Designed to be heard only once a week on Sunday,
Bach's cantatas are still best appreciated one at a time. Take this disc by Sigiswald Kuijken leading
La Petite Bande. One of their 20-disc survey of cantatas for the complete liturgical year, the disc contains three extraordinary works for the fourth, fifth, and sixth Sundays after Trinity: Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ) in G minor; Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten (Who leaves the loving God to guide him) in C minor; and Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (Oh, Lord, I am a poor Sinner) in D minor. Each is in a different key and form, each confronts different musical and spiritual issues, and each one is gloomier than the last -- not the performances, which are consummately musical and deeply spiritual, but the works, which are deeper and darker than the gnawing fear at the heart of belief in predestination. So while the performances are consistently beautiful -- soprano
Siri Thornhill has an especially exquisite voice and bassoonist Rainer Johannsen has an amazingly lyrical tone -- the works are best taken once week, preferably on Sunday, ideally on your knees. Accent's astoundingly realistic sound will have you back in the pews in no time.