• Birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weißenfels, 1725

The cantatas related to the Easter Oratorio, BWV 249 need a little bit of unravelling: The original composition was this laudatory cantata written for the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weißenfels. The music from this cantata was then re-used for a sacred cantata for Easter Sunday 1725. Then came the secular cantata BWV 249b for Count Joachim Friedrich von Flemming and finally, in the early 1730's, Bach revised the score of the sacred version, and titled it Oratorio to give us the work that we know best. The music from this cantata is lost but thankfully, apart from the recitatives, the music is all to be found in the Easter Oratorio. BWV 249a/1-3 correspond to BWV 249/1-2, BWV 249a/5 corresponds to BWV 249/5, BWV 249a/7 corresponds to BWV 249/7, BWV 249a/9 corresponds to BWV 249/9 and BWV 249a/11 corresponds to BWV 249/11. See NBA II/7 and the critical commentary for more details.

Copyright © 1999, Simon Crouch.