Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben

Unglaublich

It’s been around for 300 years - and I’ve been around for 45 years: but somehow, I never heard this piece until recently.

It’s unbelievably uplifting.

The fact that it’s in honour of his mother makes it even better. It’s written to be performed for the feast of the Visitation. I like this image:

Er wird bewegt, er hüpft und springet,
he is moved, he leaps and jumps
Indem Elisabeth das Wunderwerk ausspricht,
while Elizabeth declares the miracle,

I’m really struggling to think of anything else quite as uplifting (suggestions welcome below!)

Maybe Amor Hai Vinto? On that one, I am biased by a happy memory. We stumbled across a soprano rehearsing it in New College chapel, on a sun-bleached day in about 1998. There were just two of us listening in all that vast space. She made it ring like a bell.

We went back to see the performance in the evening. An incredible piece, in an incredible place.