Only the last four pages of Bach’s Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe (Christmas Day 1728) survive. Fortunately, Picander’s libretto enables Pieter Dirksen to reconstruct the first half of the cantata persuasively. He reduces the ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ from the B minor Mass to four voices and adjusts its underlay to a German paraphrase of the same words; it displays the relaxed fluidity of Vocalensemble Rastatt (a choir of six voices per part) and Les Favorites’ vivacious trumpets and characterful oboes. Dirksen parodies a soprano aria from the Trauerode (1727); Miriam Feuersinger’s crystalline vocal intelligence is supported flawlessly by the string band and continuo organist. Alto Terry Wey, a pair of flutes and a bassoon offer supplicatory delicacy in an adoration of the baby Jesus in the manger. Bass Sebastian Noack and an oboe d’amore express devoted piety before Dirksen brings back the three trumpets and timpani in the closing chorale (notated by Bach on two staves without scoring).

Salomon Franck’s printed libretto for Alles, was von Gott geboren suggests that it was performed at Weimar’s court chapel on the third Sunday of Lent in 1715. Klaus Hofmann pieces together the lost cantata using Bach’s later adaptation Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (Reformation Day, Leipzig, c1729 31). An intimate continuo aria inviting Jesus into a sinner’s heart has endearing integrity thanks to Feuersinger’s symbiotic partnership with the cellist and organist; a blissful duet for Wey and tenor Florian Sievers features euphonious playing by concertante violin and viola. Elements of Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (New Years Day 1724) survive in fragments of the autograph score and an incomplete set of parts. Masato and Masaaki Suzuki recreate a brilliant orchestration including three trumpets, timpani, three oboes, bassoon and strings for the opening chorus; the interjection of a cantus firmus from Luther’s German Te Deum (1529) bursts in thrillingly and tees up a joyful ‘Alleluja’. Holger Speck’s sure-footed conducting repays the Bachian curiosity of these editorial reconstructions.