While this collection features some inspired rarities by composers centered around Bach's Weimar period, the primary draw is what may well be a first recording of Christoph Graupner's cantata setting of poet Georg Christian Lehms' "Mein Herz schwimmt in Blut" (My heart is bathed in blood), composed two years earlier than Bach's more familiar and justly famous one. This begs the obvious question: Did Graupner's work inspire or in any way influence the master? Listening reveals that it most likely did. The four recitatives (especially the entrance to the first) are remarkably similar both in timing and temperament. It's in the conception of the arias that the composers differ, at times significantly--and as we would expect, always in Bach's favor. In the first and second arias in particular Bach clearly embraces his subject matter more profoundly and in turn more deeply. Not only do the timings indicate Bach's greater seriousness (his movements are three times longer, making the complete cantata more than twice as long), but more importantly it's the grandeur and authority of his music and its ability to heighten the inherent sadness of the texts that distinguishes him from his able contemporary (Graupner's music at times borders on being unsuitably bouncy).

Performances of BWV 199 are plentiful, and while this one by the Musica Poetica with soprano Andrea Hornung-Boesen is fine, there are others that admittedly outclass it: Elly Ameling with Helmut Winschermann and the Deutsche Baroque soloists on Philips; Edith Mathis with Karl Richter and the Munich Bach Orchestra on Archiv; Barbara Schlick with Christophe Coin and the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges on Astrée; Arleen Auger with Helmuth Rilling and the Bach Collegium Stuttgart (also on Hänssler); and my long-standing favorite that unfortunately has not been available on CD (please someone prove me wrong here!)--Maria Stader with Helmut Müller-Brühl and the Cologne soloists. All of these renditions feature keener interpretive diversity and a greater sense of passionate urgency.

While lighter, the remaining obscurities are equally welcome and enjoyable. The two concertos by Johann Ernst Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar are expertly crafted yet owe more of their inspiration to Vivaldi and Corelli than to Bach. Johann David Heinichen's lovely sonata in C includes moments of striking instrumental delineation, particularly between the oboe and violin in the second and third movements. Georg Friedrich Kauffmann's cantata "Unverzagt, beklemmtes Herz" (Be not daunted anxious heart) is a short though evocative work strongly influenced by Bach.

Hänssler's sound is quite good with sufficient clarity and detail. Musical director and violist Hans Bergmann's notes are informative and scholastically thorough. While admirers of BWV 199 certainly will find Graupner's take on Lehms' popular poem curious if not fascinating, this engaging program of many premiere recordings will handsomely reward all German baroque enthusiasts.

--John Greene