CCMusic.com

In Johann Sebastian Bach's vast oeuvre of cantatas, his dialogue cantatas occupy a very special position: as if in a personal dialogue, the 'Christian soul' (soprano) and 'Christ' (bass) enter into a dialogue, which Bach sets to music with the highest emotional power, almost like in an opera. Bach refers to the words of Martin Luther, according to whom "faith unites the soul with Christ as a bride with her bridegroom", and thus ties in with the medieval idea of bridal mysticism. And so this dialogue becomes a spiritual "love duet", as it were, which Miriam Feuersinger and Klaus Mertens - both of whom are among the great Bach interpreters of our time - interpret here in the most intimate way. The two cantatas "Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen" BWV 49 and "Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen" BWV 32 are complemented by Christoph Graupner's Oboe Concerto in C major GWV 302, performed by oboist Elisabeth Grümmer.