There are few choral works of Bach’s so delicately woven and deliciously pearly as Lass, Furstin (Trauer Ode – or “Mourning Ode” – as it is better known), a piece from 1727 which magically juxtaposes funeral symbolism rooted in the past with thoroughly modern eighteenth-century tastes. Andrew Parrott frames this exceptional eulogy, for the beloved Electress of Saxony and Queen of Poland, Christiane Eberhardine, with two motets in a programme entitled “Heart’s Solace” (more the marketing man’s solace, I’d say). The performance of the central work, the only piece with obbligato instruments, is reverently shaped, and as so often with Parrott, articulation is carefully judged and mindfully directed; long-breathed and dignified, the Taverner Consort and Players revel in the opening movement’s courtly refinement and Bach’s brilliant manipulation of Franco-influenced rhythmic gesture. The instrumental playing – the ‘soft’ scoring of woodwind, lutes and gambas has a uniquely visceral palette – is the closest since Jurgen Jurgens’s mid-1960s recording to capturing the paradoxical state of heartfelt pain and a shimmering spiritual nourishment.
