Ich habe genug, BWV 82
Cantata for the Feast of the Purification
First performance: Leipzig, February 2, 1727
For bass soloist, oboe, strings and continuo
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Aria: Ich habe genug
Recitative: Ich habe genug
Aria: Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen
Recitative: Mein Gott! wann kommst das schöne: Nun!
Aria (Vivace): Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
The solo cantata Ich habe genug (I have enough) was composed for the Feast of the Purification, February 2, 1727. It was performed on that occasion by a bass singer with a solo oboe, strings and continuo, but like many works of Bach, it went through several revisions. Bach initially wrote the opening aria for an alto, but on completing it, he appended an instruction that the voice part should be transposed down an octave for a bass. He then wrote the remainder of the cantata for bass. Several years later, he transposed the work up a third from C minor to E minor to adapt it for soprano and, in that higher version, substituted a flute for the oboe. Still later, he altered the clef on the voice staff to transpose it back to C minor for an alto. A final version copied out toward the end of his life is once again for bass. Why all these changes were made and what circumstances led him to make them are not known, but they probably reflect the availability of soloists at times that he wanted to perform the cantata. It is normally heard today in its bass version.
The text is by an anonymous librettist. Over its three arias, it rejects worldly fortunes and expresses serenity as it anticipates death. In the opening aria, "Ich habe genug," a gentle pulsing in the strings supports an elaborately ornamented oboe line as it weaves around the voice. The well known middle aria is a beautiful lullaby in rondo form for the solo singer with strings and continuo, "Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen" ("Go to sleep, you weary eyes"). The eighth notes in the bass line give this aria as well a gentle pulse, a pulse that sometimes pauses, suspended in midair, at a fermata. This aria and the recitative that precedes it were copied by Bach's wife, Anna Magdalena, into her notebook. There follows a recitative that ends in a brief adagio arioso in C minor bidding farewell to the world: "Welt! gute Nacht" ("World! good night"). The cantata then concludes with a lively aria in C minor, "Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod" ("I rejoice at my death"), in which the soloist sings spirited sixteenth-note melismas on the word "freue" ("rejoice").
Boston Baroque Performances
Ich habe genug, BWV 82
January 1, 1992
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
William Sharp, bass
October 15, 1982
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
John Osborn, bass
April 30, 1982
Chandler Music Hall, Randolph, VT
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
John Osborn, bass
April 24, 1981
Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
John Osborn, bass
April 10, 1981
Rockport Opera House, Rockport, ME
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
John Osborn, bass