Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn! in B minor, BWV 157

The work appears to have been commissioned as a funeral cantata for Johann Christian von Ponickau (1652-1726), a Saxon chamberlain. Picander, Bach's librettist, clearly linked the cantata to Ponickau, publishing an extended funeral ode on his death, followed by the text of the cantata. The first known performance was at a memorial service for Ponickau on February 6, 1727 in the church of his home village, Pomßen (20 km from Leipzig). The event is quite well documented in that there a printed commemoration sermon giving some information about the music performed, which included a second Bach cantata, now lost (Cantata BWV Anh. 209). We do not know if Bach was present, although some writers assume so.