(Jesus sleeps, what should my hope be?) for alto, tenor and bass, (soprano in closing chorale), recorder I+II, oboe d’amore I+II, strings and continuo.

The libretti set to music by Bach for the Sundays after Epiphany speak predominantly of abandonment, angst and resignation. The fundamental Christian belief in the salvation of the soul and the second coming of Christ is marked once every church year in observances which, by their nature, are hard to bear: the joyful days of the birth and epiphany of the Lord are followed all too soon by the harsh realisation of having to rely on our limited human strength – an awareness that is pervaded by a foreboding of the Passion and knowledge of our own mortality. In these texts, the Christian longing for closeness and sureness of heart is invoked by the metaphor of an absent or sleeping Christ. This corresponds to the painful insight that the path to heaven remains beset with adversity.