Gardiner / Bach Cantata Series

Sunday, February 10th 2008

Gardiner / Bach Cantata series

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SDG 138 Volume 27 (2 cds)
The first of SDG's 2008 releases combines cantatas for Whit Tuesday and Trinity Sunday. Brandenburg Concerto No.3 precedes the two surviving Cantatas for Whit Tuesday. Pressed for time at the end of a busy Whit weekend during his first year in Leipzig, Bach based BWV 184 Erwünschtes Freudenlicht (1724) on a hasty revision of a lost Cöthen secular cantata. One might momentarily mistake the second movement of this cantata as the origin of the celebrated duet from Lakmé, before considering the long odds of Delibes ever having clapped eyes on this obscure piece. The pastoral mood continues a year later in BWV 175 Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen (1725). This is a more elaborate work, the eighth of the nine consecutive texts Bach set by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler.

Recorded in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall after one of the more dramatic journeys on the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, the first cantata for Trinity Sunday, BWV 165 O heil'ges Geist- und Wasserbad, was composed in 1715 in Weimar. It is a true sermon-in-music, based on the Gospel account of Jesus' night-time conversation with Nicodemus on the subject of 'new life'. A grand French-style overture heralds the start of BWV 194 Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest. The cantata seems to have begun life as a secular Cöthen piece some time between 1717 and 1723, and was then adapted for the dedication of the new organ at Störmthal (2 November 1723). The programme ends with the genial and uplifting work, BWV 129 Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott.

BWV 1048 - Brandenburg Concerto No.3

Cantatas for Whit Tuesday

BWV 184 - Erwünschtes Freudenlicht
BWV 175 - Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen

(recorded: Holy Trinity, Blythburgh)

Soloists: Lisa Larsson | Nathalie Stutzmann
Christoph Genz | Stephen Loges

Cantatas for Trinity Sunday

BWV 194 - Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest
BWV 176 - Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding
BWV 165 - O heil'ges Geist- und Wasserbad
BWV 129 - Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott

(recorded: St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall)

Soloists: Ruth Holton | Daniel Taylor
Paul Agnew | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

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SDG 141 Volume 3 (2 cds)
The SDG's release of Bach Cantatas for the Fourth and Fifth Sundays after Trinity opens with BWV 24 Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, recorded in Tewkesbury Abbey as part of The Cheltenham Festival. A far earlier piece follows, BWV 185 Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe was composed in Weimar in 1715 to a text by Salomo Franck and revived by Bach in Leipzig in 1723 and again in 1746/7. Strikingly different in mood is BWV 177 Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, composed in 1732, a chorale cantata based on Agricola's hymn set unaltered and with no recitatives.

The second CD was recorded in Mühlhausen, where a twenty-two year old Bach took up his second professional post. It lasted for just one year, from June 1707 to 1708. This programme includes BWV 71 Gott ist mein König. There is nothing else quite like Gott ist mein König in Bach's oeuvre. No other work of his is laid out on such a grand scale in terms of its deployment of four separate instrumental 'choirs', set against a vocal consort of four singers, an optional Capelle of ripienists and an organ.

Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 24 - Ein ungefärbt Gemüte
BWV 185 - Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe
BWV 177 - Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ

(recorded: Tewkesbury Abbey)

Soloists: Magdalena Kozená | Nathalie Stutzmann
Paul Agnew | Nicolas Teste

Cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 71 - Gott ist mein König
BWV 131 - Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir
BWV 93 - Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
BWV 88 - Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden

(recorded: Blasiuskirche, Mühlhausen)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | William Towers
Kobie van Rensburg | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner