Ich Habe Genug (BWV82) is probably one of Bach’s best loved cantatas. Written for the Feast of the Purification of Mary, it is a moving meditation on having one’s hopes and dreams fulfilled, just as the hopes of the aged Simeon are fulfilled by holding the infant Jesus in his arms. The original version was written for bass, but Bach later arranged it for soprano. Anna Magdalena also copied parts of the work into her famous Notebook.

This year, as Matthias Goerne enters his second half-century, he...