Awake, the voice commands

Goldschmidt’s admiration for Bach was lifelong and this orchestral adaptation of the famous chorale Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme was no doubt intended as a personal tribute. It was originally made in the 1930s for a Jewish orchestra in Berlin, but the score was subsequently lost. In 1947, Goldschmidt made a second transcription, but without, it appears, any performance ever taking place.  Goldschmidt's arrangement is conceived in a similar spirit to the grandiose Bach orchestrations of Elgar, Schoenberg and Stokowski, building powerfully from a pianissimo statement on the clarinet to a final ringing climax for the full orchestra.