Cantata BWV 83 presents listeners with a puzzle: although it opens in the festive style of a Brandenburg Concerto with resounding horns and a concertante violin, it closes in the sombre tone of the nunc dimittis. The second movement, a recitative, is characterised by a unique and mysterious juxtaposition of musical ideas – a timeless music of the spheres; a compositional conundrum. A lively tenor aria forms the centrepiece of the work followed by an impressive recitative that evokes the “the tomb’s dark night”. A highly diverse work that inspires curiosity.