Wie freudig ist mein Herz

BACH Cantatas Nos. 199; 82b • Ruby Hughes (sop); Philipp von Steinaecker (cond); Musica Saeculorum (period instruments) • FRA BERNARDO 1209132 (47:22 Text and Translation) Welsh soprano Ruby Hughes is new to me but hardly a newcomer to the music scene; her breakout year was 2009, when she won First Prize and Audience Prize at the Handel Singing Competition in London. Opera News included her in its list of “Who’s Hot in Opera?” Her credits, in concert music as well as opera, are already eye-catchingly impressive. She’s clearly a Baroque specialist, but her repertory, Handel aside, ranges from Dowland and Monteverdi to Berg, Britten, and Górecki. She’s even done Peer Gynt . I’d like to hear that—especially after listening to this disc. The two cantatas affirm God’s redeeming grace, a recurring theme in Lutheran theology and, consequently, in Bach’s sacred music, but they approach it from different perspectives. In the earlier BWV 199, a wretched sinner’s self-