Treach'rous world, I do not trust you BWV 52

Scoring: Solo S, Coro SATB, 3 Ob, Fg, 2 Cor, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

It only became apparent a few years ago that the text of the soprano cantata "Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht" came from the collection Gott-geheiligten Sabbaths-Zehnden by the Leipzig theology student and Bach pupil Christoph Birkmann, printed in 1728 in Nuremberg. Birkmann was probably therefore the author of the text. The cantata was written for the 23rd Sunday after Trinity, which fell on 24 November 1726 in the year of its first performance. As in other cantatas in the first annual cycle, Bach chose an instrumental sinfonia as the opening movement – here the first movement of the 1st Brandenburg Concerto.

The soprano soloist has two recitatives and two arias, in which the falsehood of the world is juxtaposed with trust in God. The cantata text is rounded off with the first verse of the chorale “In dich hab ich gehoffet”, scored for four-part chorus, as is usual with Bach. With the use of two horns and three oboes added to the string ensemble, the cantata has colorful and varied orchestration.