...is too good to keep for once a year! I especially like this cantata, Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen and listen to it every day; it gladdens the heart and strengthens the spirit. How Bach does it, I don't know, but his music is wonderful. In the version I have, it's the same conductor - Harnoncourt, but with the Vienna Boys Choir, so I was pleased to find this version on YouTube, and hear a different performance with the Tölzer boys.
Bach is a recent discovery for me, and it was Nikolaus Harnoncourt who got me interested, after hearing some of his cantatas on YouTube. They are so alive, subtle, joyful. I had thought Bach was only piano pieces that just seemed to go on and on - now I've discovered his world of choral music and listen to practically nothing else - apart from the violin and Brandenburg concertos. As Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita, such beauty is 'a spark of my splendour'. And Bach's music really does seem like such a spark - reflecting the quality of God's beauty and making us want to bask in that. It inspires me in my practise of spiritual life - who would not want to seek out the source of such beauty!
Ultimately I want to give up Bach and find complete satisfaction in chanting Krishna's names, but for now, on the way to chanting, I'm grateful for this music.
And now, I'm off for a cycle ride, before the rain comes back.
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