Masterworks for the Classical Guitar - Steven Saulls, Classical Guitarist
About the music and the composer...
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life), BWV 147 in 1723 during his first year as Thomaskantor, the director of church music in Leipzig. His cantata is part of his first cantata cycle there and was written for the Marian feast of the Visitation on 2 July, which commemorates Mary's visit to Elizabeth as narrated in the Gospel of Luke in the prescribed reading for the feast day. Bach based the music on his earlier cantata BWV 147a, written originally in Weimar in 1716 for Advent. He expanded the Advent cantata in six movements to ten movements in two parts in the new work. While the text of the Advent cantata was written by the Weimar court poet Salomo Franck, the librettist of the adapted version who added several recitatives is anonymous.
Bach began the cantata with a chorus for the full orchestra, followed by alternating recitatives and arias with often obbligato instrument. He scored it for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of trumpet, two oboes, strings, and continuo. The closing chorale of the earlier work was replaced by the hymn "Jesu, meiner Seelen Wonne" (1661) by Martin Janus, while using the melody of "Werde munter, mein Gemüte" by Johann Schop. Two of its stanzas close the two parts of the cantata in an identical setting. While Bach often composed four-part chorales to end a cantata, he embedded such a setting here in a pastoral instrumental concerto. This music became famous in a piano transcription by Dame Myra Hess as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. (Wikipedia)
About the performer...
Steven began studying the guitar at age nine and has attended some of the finest music schools in the world including the Berklee College of Music (Boston), and the Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria). He holds both a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University (1980) and a Master of Music degree from the University of Arizona (1982).
Over the past 40 years, Steven has performed hundreds of concerts throughout the United States, Central & South America and Europe. His debut recordings ‘Espressivo’ and ‘Steven Saulls Plays Works by Ponce, Torroba & Bach’ have received wide acclaim both nationally and internationally. In addition to solo concerts, he has performed over 200 chamber works including guitar concerti (with orchestra) by Vivaldi, Ponce and Rodrigo.
About the recording...
Recorded at The Steven Saulls Guitar Studio, Sahuarita, Arizona 2023/Guitar handcrafted by Martin Blackwell.
Copyright© 2023 Steven Saulls, Sahuarita, Arizona
For additional information please contact Steven Saulls at sdsaulls@gmail.com
20 сен 2024
