Bach’s Cantata BWV 120, J.S. Bach-Stiftung St. Gallen, Olma-Halle, St. Gallen, 29.10.2021

The Cantata BWV 120, Gott, man lobet in der Stille, is a work of elusive nature. It is a cerimonial cantata composed for the council elections in Leipzig in 1742, i.e., it is something Bach had to do as a purely contractual obligation. As Bach is Bach, this has nothing to do with quality or lack thereof, but this explains that every number but the recitatives were borrowed from previous works, some of them would still be used again. All that poses an extra challenge on interpreters: first, producing the impression of coherence in something that was originally a hotchpotch and, second, making it sound as if Bach really meant it, “it” being the sincere wish that the rulers of his town were wise and well meaning, as we hear in the text of the cantata. 

Bach was the kind of man who was unable of not having an opinion – and here he very subtly lets us know what was in his mind when he assembled this cantata. Festive works tend to start with a trumpet+drums number, for those instruments were understood in the baroque as a symbol of gods and kings (via their military nature). But here they come in third place. The opening number is actually an aria of pastorale nature with two oboes d’amore for the alto voice. The text: we praise God in silence.

As in every concert in this series, an invited speaker shares his thoughts about the cantata between two performances of the same work. This evening, a businessman with musical background, Mr. Hermann Hess (no second “e” in his family name) reminded us that praising God and the King in the 18th century was almost the same thing – and Bach proves here to have an Aufklärung bone in his body. First he tells us what is the real devotion – the one you show in silence, alone as a shepherd far away from all ostentation and richness. Then he performs his professional duty with the protocolar trumpet + drum chorus, one he would use again in a (glorious) work he composed out of sheer convenience, the Mass in B Minor. 

Before this concert, I renewed my acquaintance with this cantata with the Suzuki and the Koopman recordings, both of which go for glitter and glamour. Then I checked Herreweghe’s and he just sold me his concept. In his recording, there is a gentle, warm, unrushed atmosphere that makes us understand that the good people of Leipzig have a sincere faith that God in his wisdom will send them the ruler they deserve. In musical terms, this basically means making the “protocolar” chorus less fireworky than it is. I confess that I don’t find it a very inspired number, and the gentler approach makes it clearer in terms of structure and more gracious in terms of expression. 

This evening conductor Rudolf Lutz seems to see the work very much like either Suzuki or Koopman. And I wished that he didn’t. The Herreweghe approach would have flattered his forces better. As performed today, his chorus lacked clarity both in terms of articulation and balance. Their singing basically sounded tangled and mostly overshadowed by drums and trumpets (which could have offered something less erratic in a more considerate tempo). In the first aria, countertenor Jan Börner tacked his divisions precisely and elegantly. I have the impression that a female alto in the acoustics of the Olma-Halle would fare less better in this tessitura. That said, I have developed a fondness for Ingeborg Danz’s fruitiness of tone in that number. She sounds softly authoritative and that feels right in the number in which Bach is teaching us a lesson. Replacing Sybilla Rubens, Miriam Feuersinger sang her aria with her customary stylishness and tonal plushness – but both Hanna Blazikova (for Suzuki) and Deborah York (for Herreweghe) shows us that this is really meant for a bell-toned (rather than pellucid) voice. Both male soloists have only recitatives to deliver. Both of them sang them knowingly, but their counterparts in recordings offer something distinctively more mellifluous. 

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