Mahan Esfahani - Bach: Notebooks for Anna Magdalena (CD)

The presence in this collection of keyboard and vocal works of a sacred character has a meaning deeper than the frequently glib description of such music as minor and even imperfect corollaries to what is often imperfectly described as 'personal devotion'. These arias and chorales (nine in total, if one includes the setting of Jesus, meine Zuversicht from the 1722 manuscript) are overwhelmingly concerned with themes of contentment (both spiritual and domestic) and with the inner peace felt by a soul on it's arrival in the presence of a benevolent God. As the unknown author of the text for Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zurücke (track 36) states without any hint of despair: 'Inscribe these words on my heart and breast: / Be mindful that you must die.' Seeing as the attributions for these pieces to J S Bach are fairly airtight, it is not difficult to imagine such pieces as embodying musical and literary messages to one's partner in marriage. Whilst the works in Anna Magdalena's notebook are slight and of seemingly little value compared to the great suites and variations and virtuoso fantasies and fugues, they nonetheless manifest the entire spirit of a civilization whose values we would do well to understand with the same energy with which we master Bach's considerable demands on our technical and expressive abilities. Moreover, each of these works is a precious artefact surviving from a woman of whom so little is known that we lack even a representation of her very physical likeness. To know her, and to know the man who was Johann Sebastian Bach, we could do worse than to try our hands and voices at the music they considered worthy enough to accompany their innermost thoughts and actions and which filled the four corners of their living spaces.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Bach: Minuet in F major, BWVAnh113
2. Pezold: Minuets in G major / G minor, BWVAnh114 ; 115
3. Couperin: Rondeau in B flat major, BWVAnh183
4. Bach: Minuet in G major, BWVAnh116
5. Bach: Polonaise in F major, BWVAnh117
6. Bach: Minuet in B flat major, BWVAnh118
7. Bach: Polonaise in G minor, BWVAnh119
8. Bach: Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV691
9. Bach: Gib dich zufrieden, BWV510
10. Bach: Gib dich zufrieden, BWV511
11. Bach: Minuet in A minor, BWVAnh120
12. Bach: Minuet in C minor, BWVAnh121
13. C.P.E Bach: March in D major, BWVAnh122
14. C.P.E Bach: Polonaise in G minor, BWVAnh123
15. C.P.E Bach: March in G major, BWVAnh124
16. C.P.E Bach: Polonaise in G minor, BWVAnh125
17. Bach: Erbauliche Gedanken eines Tobackrauchers, BWV515a
18. Böhm: Menuet fait par Mons Böhm in G major
19. Bach: Musette in D major, BWVAnh126
20. C.P.E Bach: March in E flat major, BWVAnh127
21. Bach: Polonaise in D minor, BWVAnh128
22. Stölzel: Bist du bei mir, BWV508
23. Bach: Goldberg Variations 'Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen', BWV988 I. Aria
24. C.P.E Bach: Solo per il cembalo, BWVAnh129
25. Hasse: Polonaise in G major, BWVAnh130
26. Bach: The well-tempered Clavier Book 1, BWV846-869 No 01 in C major, BWV846. Movement 1. Prelude
27. J.C Bach: Rigaudon in F major, BWVAnh131
28. Bach: Warum betrübst du dich?, BWV516
29. Bach: Ich habe genug, BWV82 No 2. Recitativo. Ich habe genug
30. Bach: Ich habe genug, BWV82 No 3. Aria. Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen
31. Bach: Schaffs mit mir, Gott, BWV514
32. Bach: Minuet in D minor, BWVAnh132
33. Bach: Willst du dein Herz mir schenken, BWV518
34. Bach: Dir, dir, Jehova, will ich singen, BWV299b
35. Bach: Wie wohl ist mir, o Freund der Seelen, BWV517
36. Bach: Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zurücke, BWV509
37. Bach: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV513
38. Bach: Jesus, meine Zuversicht, BWV728
39. Bach: Minuet in G major, BWV841
40. Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel Bist du bei mir, BWV508