Komm!

Komm! gathers three of Bach’s early cantatas on the Lutheran “art of dying well,” in which the recorder serves as the breath, or spiritus, of the soul. Giovanni Antonini and Sheng-Fang Chiu take the recorder parts, joined by Andrzej Kosendiak, the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble and the NFM Boys’ Choir. The program opens with the funeral cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, “Actus tragicus” (BWV 106), probably Bach’s earliest cantata of its kind. It moves to the Weimar cantatas Komm, du süße Todesstunde (BWV 161), a longing for death as union with Christ, and Himmelskönig, sei willkommen (BWV 182), Bach’s only Palm Sunday cantata. A solo hymn, Komm, süßer Tod, komm, selge Ruh! (BWV 478), closes the album with a recorder part not found in the original, added in keeping with Baroque symbolism.

As Piotr Maculewicz’s liner notes explain, Bach’s repeated use of the flute in this repertoire is no accident: its sound, born of breath, can stand for life, prayer and transience. Death here is a joyful transition rather than something to fear, and the recorder’s pastoral associations point toward a paradisiacal Arcadia. Boy trebles from the NFM Boys’ Choir add to the sense of innocence. Recorded at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, the album pairs Antonini’s recorder playing with Polish forces known for their historically informed performance of sacred repertoire.

Giovanni Antonini, recorder
Sheng-Fang Chiu, recorder
Wrocław Baroque Ensemble
Andrzej Kosendiak, conductor
NFM Boys’ Choir