The sacred cantatas of J.S. Bach

I have had a little moment like you with "Ein feste Burg", tones - I have a DVD with a documentary of Gardiner's Cantata pilgrimage and there are a couple of snippets - one is the beautiful and delicate soprano/alto duet - the bit where the voices enter for the first time - of "Den tod" (BWV 4), which overwhelms me every time I watch it. There is a lovely picture of the cello player who is clearly moved by the sad music. I haven't been able to find a recording that sounds as gorgeous as this. I see BWV4 is on volume 22 of JEG's series, so I will finally get one!

The packaging with the liner notes is wonderful too. (This is why I will never give up buying CDs). The essays are interesting and they prompted me to delve into the spiritual and religious significance of the music. I have just started Eric Chafe's book which I am finding I have to read v e r y s l o w l y to take everything in - it's fascinating and illuminating for me. I can't quite work out why the cantatas speak to me - a middle aged agnostic corporate slave, but there you go. One of life's mysteries.

Happy listening to all!

 

Ah, yes, "Christ lag in Toesbanden", one of the greats (and, curiously, one of the earliest). He uses the whole of Luther's hymn of the same name.

Well, when you find out, do let me know, because it might explain
me too! How something written 250 years ago in a different world can reach out across time and space and grab you is indeed one of life's sublime mysteries.

(Thinks: Time and space - 2010 is not that far away. Will we get some super new Monteverdi's Vespers for it? Has to happen!)

 

One of the great things about Bach's Cantatas is that the sheer number of them combined with my poor memory, often allow me to rediscover forgotten gems that I haven't heard in a while! I was just preparing some room on my shelves for the eight Gardiner CDs that are heading my way very soon, and I put on Volume 1 which contains BWV 7 - Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam. I have been playing my Suzuki CDs to death so thought I'd have a change.

I had to crank it right up! What a tremendous, mind blowing opening chorus - for me it contains all that is great in Bach - soaring instrumental writing and majestic vocal lines, delicious counterpoint and a sense of uplifting power.

I'm taking the day off work next Friday and if my new discs have arrived by then I don't anticipate getting anything else done but a lot of listening!!!

Have a great week all!

 

There is a special offer of the complete Nicolas Harnoncourt Sacred Cantata set (60 CDs) for £125 via the Daily Telegraph 0870 164 6465.

 

That sounds like a good offer, Sandgrownun, will you be buying it yourself? I've heard some of the Harnoncourt cantatas, but don't like him as much as Herreweghe, Gardiner or Suzuki in the cantatas.

I am very happy today because I received a small windfall which will enable me to purchase my entire wish list on Amazon plus some more!

I'm just trying to decide what to get and it's the most fun I've had in a while! I do have a system for collecting the cantatas so I will be able to fill in a few gaps while I'm waiting for the complete JEG collection. I'd also like to sample a few other cantata composers such as Bruhns and Buxtehude.

What I really would like, but is not available from Amazon, is to buy some more time to listen to all of this wonderful music!!!:meister:

 

I also found the same set at £99 on bigboxedsets.com! I understand the Harnoncourt version has its ups and downs, but I think it will be good to have a complete version at a reasonable price to supplement selected discs from others. The Gardiner CDs aren't cheap even with the 25% discount!

I'm glad to hear of your good fortune, sunnyside up, and empathise with your desire for more time to listen.

 

99 pounds is a great price! I agree the Gardiner series isn't cheap, but the 25%-off deal is heaps better than paying $68 AUD apiece in the shops here in Oz - and it's spread over a long time so I think of it as a better return on investment than, say, buying women's magazines or new clothes like some of my friends -- but then I'm not a girly-girl! Hooray for libraries, charity shops and beans on toast!!!

Hope you enjoy the Harnoncourt, sandgrownun!

 

Yesterday I received Christophe Coin/Ensemble Baroque De Limoges' recording of Cantatas 180, 49 and 115 and I'm absolutely blown away by it, so much so that I've ordered his other two Bach Cantata CDs. The sound is warm and expressive and the playing is amazing. The singing is first rate (even Barbara Schlick)!

I'm glad I decided to explore other interpreters of the Cantatas, there is so much to discover!

 

Yes, Coin is very much worthwhile, IMO. His Bach is more expressive than (for instance) Suzuki's. Coin is a pupil of Harnoncourt, so maybe that's the explanation.

 

Today I received four Gardiner CDs and so far I have only listened to CD1 of Vol 22, which contains one of my favourites, No. 4 Christ Lag in Todesbanden. It had me in tears very quickly and I couldn't move on to the next one! It is just so, so beautiful, I think I might have mentioned the third verse in this thread before, the soprano and alto duet sends shivers up and down my spine - I don't know what it is about this cantata, it's so simple and yet so profound it just takes my breath away....

 

The latest Gardiner has the three pastoral cantatas, BWV 104 ( Du Hirte Israel, höre), BWV 85 (Ich bin ein guter Hirt) and BWV 112 (Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt), and they get delicious performances. The 9/8 opening chorale of BWV104 (the same timing that gives the famous "Jesu joy of man's desiring" its distinctive lilt) is taken a shade too quickly for my liking, but the rest are excellent, an old favourite, the aria Seht, was die Liebe tut of BWV85, getting a very nice rendering.

Sunnyside_up, another good investment, I found was Gardiner's DVD of the cantatas performed in St. David's in Wales. The highlight is BWV199 Mein Herz schwimmt in Blut, for solo soprano, sung by Magdalena Kozena. There is also an interesting essay on the Pilgrimage, showing it at different stages, ending with the tremendous final choral of the New Year cantata BWV190 in New York.

 

I'm still catching up with the Gardiner CDs! I had four in my collection as of yesterday, received four more today, and have four more to come. So far I have to say they are superb, and I'm really glad I have decided to subscribe! The latest one with the Easter cantatas 104/85/112 is next on the pile - when I can stop playing the one with No. 4!

tones, I have the DVD you mentioned, and I love Cantata 199 very much. Magdalena is wonderful! The Pilgrimage documentary is good too - it's great to get an insight into what Gardiner did and how he did it - it must have been absoulutely amazing to take part in.

 

Dear Cantaters,

I have a special offer for anyone interested. I have a copy of this book:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cantatas-J-...0464764?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184003680&sr=8-1

that I need to pass on, as I don't actually need it in stereo. The book is brand-spanking new, never been opened.

So, why did I acquire two? Well, first of all, I ordered it via a cheap Amazon Marketplace seller in the USA. It was poorly packed, so it arrived damaged. I sent it back (cost a bomb), asking for a replacement book, but they credited my credit card - and no, they naturally didn't pay for the postage.

So I tried Caiman, with whom I've had good experiences. The book was duly sent, but never arrived. So I complained, and Caiman sent another, which did arrive.

Then, last week, after several months on the road, what should turn up but the first Caiman book. I contacted Caiman - did they want it back? Yes, they did, just pop it in the post box. Unfortunately, Swiss Post didn't agree and said I'd have to pay the postage. Would Caiman pay the postage? No, they wouldn't, and they said I could keep the book.

So, what I would like to do is to recover the cost of my original postage (£15). So, for anyone who wants this marvellous tome, the cost is £15 + postage to wherever you are. In other words, the maximum cost to anyone would be £30 total. (That would be the cost to send to USA/Oz - Europe would be considerably cheaper). First to PM me with an offer gets it!

P.S. PROVISIONALLY SOLD...

 

:cry: I've been meaning to get that book! And I will, eventually, I just keep spending my money on CDs!! I'll try and get it from the library and then decide whether or not to buy it.

What did you think of it, tones?

 

Now definitely sold, I'm afraid.

It's written by a great musical scholar, so much of what is written is over this particular non-musician's head (ditto Gardiner's notes, of course). However, it has interesting essays on the cantatas, how they came to be and their performance. The major slab of the book - and this is what I like - is a cantata-by-cantata description, in Church year order, rather than BWV number order. So, the first cantata discussed is BWV 61 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland for the First Sunday in Advent. You have the texts, English and German side by side, and then a discourse on the cantata. Pleased to say that the Christmas Oratorio is also in there, as is the sadly often neglected (because incomplete) New Year's cantata BWV 190 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (the magnificent final chorale of this cantata is the one that finishes the Gardiner Cantata DVD (in New York) - where Gardiner, whether consciously or not, holds his arms in a position similar to the Christ figure he faces on the church wall and almost seems to say "Thank you").

I am also pleased to see BWV 11 Lobet Gott in seinem Reichen in there - because it's subtitled the "Ascension Oratorio", it is often omitted from the cantatas, even though its numbering in the Bach-Werke Verzeichnis clearly indicates that it is a cantata.

And to cap that all, you also get discussion of the secular cantatas and various other pieces written for various courts, nobles and burghers and Leipzig University. So, you get BWV 214 Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten, from which Bach adopted the opening movement of the cantata 1 of the Christmas Oratorio and its marvellous bass aria Grösser Herr und stärker König.

Not a cheap book, but one for listening to the cantatas and, like Gardiner's notes, being drawn into the sheer genius of the man and how he so carefully put it all together and gave it meaning, far above the Leipzig parishioners' comprehension. He was, in a sense, writing for eternity, but not in a way he, ridiculed as an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy, even by his own sons, could ever have imagined.

 

Thanks tones, I will certainly get a copy of that book sometime soon. At the moment I refer constantly to the Oxford Composer Companion ed. Malcolm Boyd which has a reasonably detailed entry for every cantata and is written at a level that I can understand, but I'd like to learn more.

I've finally received all twelve of the JEG Cantata Pilgrimage catalogue released thus far (except for one that was damaged in transit and I'm waiting on a replacement). Still haven't listened to all of them yet. I'm stuck on CD1 of Vol. 23 (the most recently released) which contains Cantatas 150, 67, 42 and 158. This is some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. The bass aria with obbligato violin from BWV 158 is intensely moving and despite its theme of approaching death, strangely comforting.

Another of my favourites is BWV 161 Komm, du süsse Todesstunde from Vol. 8. I love the sound of Mark Padmore's voice especially in "Mein Verlangen". Gorgeous, tender and soothing.

There are so many wonderful moments on these CDs that I'm not listening to anything else but Bach cantatas these days.

I now have a box of tissues next to the stereo!

 

YES!!!! AT LAST!!!

The fourth release of 2007 was recorded at the 59th and final concert in John Eliot Gardiner's triumphant year-long adventure, in a packed - and hushed - St Bartholomew's New York. It opens with Bach's great double-choir motet, Singet dem Herrn BWV 225. BWV 152 Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn follows. Bach shapes this intimate chamber piece, scored only for soprano, bass and six instruments, as a spiritual and musical journey.

BWV 122 Das neugeborne Kindelein, a chorale cantata composed in 1724 as part of Bach's second mini-Christmas cycle for Leipzig, is as close to the traditional Christmas carol-like image of the infant Jesus as Bach ever got.

BWV 190 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied! was composed for New Year's Day 1724, of which the first two movements have had to be partially reconstructed since only the voice lines and two violin parts survived. Between the psalm verses Bach inserts two lines from Luther's vernacular version of the Te Deum (1529). These he assigns to the traditional liturgical plain-chant delivered in long notes by the choir in octaves, a technique of musical relief of which he was a master - and which is hugely imposing in performance.

A year later, as part of his third Leipzig cycle, Bach presented BWV 28 Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende, a fitting title to sum up the parallel sense of loss and fulfilment, relief and regret within the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists at the very end of a year-long, life-changing experience.

 

Wonderful news....Roll on October!!! I am enjoying the Gardiner series very much. The only thing I worry about is constantly removing the CDs from their covers - much as I love the packaging in an aesthetic sense, I am afraid they won't protect the CD from damage as much as the conventional press-in boxes - and I've had to add a spot of glue to some of the inner sleeves to stop the CDs from protruding out of the bottom.

 

Well, it's here at last:

http://www.monteverdiproductions.co.uk/recordings/new_releases.cfm

and yes indeed, that's it playing in the background. BWV190 had to go on first, and it is given a brilliant performance. Currently half way through the motet BWV225, also called Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied. Also brilliant stuff. One (this one anyway) is awed, not only by the sparkling performance, but also by the stunning creative imagination behind it, and how it all goes together so brilliantly. I begin to realise that, if I were forbidden to listen to any music but Bach, I'd be able to handle it.

 

So, two great new volumes arrived chez Tones, just in time to put the newly Net Audio-refurbished Quad 303 through its paces.

http://www.monteverdiproductions.co.uk/recordings/new_releases.cfm

Volume 27, with one of Steve McCurry's Afghan urchins with the hypnotic eyes on the cover (how does he do that?), is unusual in that it features Brandenburg Concerto No.3. "Why?" you might ask. (But then, you might not, but anyway...). Reason is that Gardiner was running out of Trinity cantatas and so he included a "trinity" piece - 3 movements, 3 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos). Anyway, nice version. The gems are from St. Magnus, Kirkwall in the Orkneys, especially an old favourite BWV129. I love the old Rilling version, with the three trumpeting Läubin brothers (on modern instruments) blowing up a storm. The natural instruments can't match this, but they do have a sound all of their own, and the version is suitably rousing, in a very nice acoustic.

Vol.3 doesn't maintain the high standard, in that some of the soloists are a bit weak. However, the Monteverdis and the EBS are in fine form, and the highlight is a rousing version of BWV71 Gott ist mein König.

Highly recommended - and they will look splendid on the special shelf I'm making for them in my new CD storage cabinet.