LDV302

Seizing as no one had done before him upon the chorale imposed by the Reformation in the deeply Lutheran Thuringia of his birth, Bach made it a fine instrument for preaching, as is shown by this programme, strongly marked by the exaltation of God’s glory. For that was Bach’s sole ambition: we find a musician who was obviously seeking a perfection that could not be sufficiently nourished by artistic vanity alone, but was constantly inspired in him by faith and service to the liturgy. More than any other musical form, the chorale, through its infinite potential for development, and through the nature of the message it incorporated, was perfectly suited to Bach’s intentions and to his personal mysticism, substituting music for religious ecstasy. From his days in Eisenach, where, perhaps from an early age, he had heard the trumpets and cornets dispensing their chorales daily from the belfry, to his years in Leipzig, where (too ideally maybe) one would like to believe that his final hours were accompanied by the chorale Vor deinen Thron – Bach’s whole life’s work, instrumental and vocal, was constantly and fundamentally impregnated, not with a simple technical process for the edification of sinners, but with a veritable ferment of communion with the Creator. ANDRÉ ISOIR 25