Funeral Music - Le Banquet Céleste

This brilliant flash of a very young Bach is perhaps the most beautiful Easter music ever At 22, Bach wrote a funeral cantata that looks death straight in the eye. ‘Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit’ – also called ‘Actus Tragicus’ – possibly accompanied the funeral of his own uncle. Recorders sing melodies without words, Bible fragments and Lutheran texts stack up into a meditation that does not want to soothe but make focus: that the end is coming is certain, so make sure you are ready. The thematically related cantata ‘Komm, du süße Todesstunde’ and Telemann’s ‘Du aber, Daniel’ complete the Easter poster of the always searingly good Le Banquet Céleste.