Juozas Rimas wrote:

>> So far I have listened only to two parts of this huge work and would
>> like to ask you: which parts have made the biggest impression to you?

Deryk Barker:

>The opening and closing choruses and the chorales.  (Can you tell I used
>to be a choral singer and had little patience for soloists?)

Me (to the original question):

try "Mache dich mein Herze rein," a Bass solo towards the end, and "Ich
will dir mein Herze schenken,"(sp?) a Sporano aria about a third of the
way through.

About choruses vs soli: the choruses are definitely more arresting, but
the way Bach wrote arias, they're the closest thing to instrumental writing
with voice that you can find in the Baroque repertoire, as most people seem
to agree, unofficially.  So they're a good transition to works that are
more mainstream vocal or operatic, such as, for example, Handel, in my
opinion.

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