Fret thee not, thou mortal soul BWV 186a

Scoring: Soli SATB, Coro SATB, [2 Ob], Fg, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

Bach was not able to use the Weimar Advent cantata "Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht" BWV 186a in Leipzig, as there was no performance of church music there between the 1st Sunday of Advent and Christmas. Bach expanded and revised the cantata during his first year in Leipzig and performed it for the first time in its new form on the 7th Sunday after Trinity 1723. Only a wordbook survives from the original Weimar form of the work. Starting from the Weimar wordbook and Bach’s Leipzig score, Diethard Hellmann has created a reconstruction of Bach’s sole known cantata for the 3rd Sunday of Advent.