With this set of 12 cantatas, a few of them quite short, Dutch historical-instrument conductor Ton Koopman approaches the end of his monumental traversal of the complete Bach cantata corpus. The cantatas here mostly date from the last two decades of Bach's life. By this time Bach had cantatas from earlier cycles ready for most occasions pertaining to the liturgical year. Several of the works here were written for special occasions -- weddings in at least two cases. The orchestration for the most part is large and varied, with several pieces including trumpets and tympani; the Cantata No. 195, "Dem Gerechten muß das Licht," BWV 195, features a dazzling array of strings, oboe, oboe d'amore, transverse flutes, horns, trumpets, bassoon, timpani, and continuo. The result is that these pieces play to the strengths of Koopman's interpretations: the warm, flawless blend of the Amsterdam Baroque Choir and the sharp differentiation of the instruments within what remains a big, festive sound overall. The famous cantata in this group is the Cantata No. 140, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," BWV 140, with its "Sleepers Awake" chorale and its lovely variations on a pastoral theme. Sample the opening chorus (CD 2, track 1) for an idea of what you can expect in the various large choruses in the lesser-known cantatas in the set: each has its nice textural touches, and not a one gets lost in Koopman's expert interpretation. Hear the "Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde" (World, goodbye, I am tired of you) movement of the Cantata No. 158, "Der Friede sei mit dir," BWV 158, for an example of Koopman at his best: this odd combination of a bass aria with mantra-like interjections of the chorale from the choir's sopranos would throw a lesser conductor. The soloists in this set are also unusually effective. Soprano Sandrine Piau's voice is unhampered by the high pitch Koopman employs, and her soaring lyricism makes an effective foil for the unusual, rather English horn-like timbre of the alto of Bogna Bartosz. There is something a bit cool in Koopman's readings; for deep humanistic insights into Bach's music, the evolving cantata set by John Eliot Gardiner may be preferable. But in the public, festive music heard here, this lion of the historical-performance movement is hard to beat. © TiVo

Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, Op. 65 (1911), has been called the last Romantic opera, and it pushes singers to their limits. It requires powerhouse Wagner-Strauss specialists, especially in the lead female roles of the Empress and the Nurse, and it receives them here in Camilla Nylund and Evelyn Herlitzius, respectively. They make an impressive pair, with Herlitizius' slashing soprano a vivid counterpoint to Nylund's soaring one, but ultimately, Die Frau ohne Schatten is a conductor's opera. It failed at first, with its complex snarl of orchestral parts, and it requires a leader who can control all of the layers of sound. Those at this live 2019 production from the Vienna State Opera spoke in awe of conductor Christian Thielemann's cool, minimal gestures, seemingly at odds with the oversized fairy-tale story, but essential to communicating it musically. Strands of orchestral texture spring into focus and then link up with what is coming next, nor does he let the vocally virtuosic cast take star turns; they work as an ensemble. Orfeo's live sound has a minimum of interference with the listener's enjoyment. Whatever one thinks of Thielemann, this is a major notch in his baton. © TiVo

Read the graphics carefully: no motets by Johann Sebastian Bach (except for one piece generally attributed to Johann Christoph Bach, but possibly the work of J.S.) are included here. Instead there are works by three of J.S. Bach's ancestors in the 17th century, including the very first composer in the 250-year Bach musical clan, Johann Bach (1604-1673). It's usually the Bach sons whose music is recorded, and all three of these composers qualify as obscure. Considering the fact that J.S. Bach set himself the task of compiling this music and obviously admired some of it, there will be reason enough for many buyers to acquire this Outhere release. There are certainly flashes of the characteristic Bach genius in a few of these works. Try the Johann Michael Bach motet Halt, was du hast (CD 1, track 7), and note the complexity with which the chorale Jesu, meine Freude is treated: it's hard not to think that the younger Bach had this in mind when he approached the chorale himself in the motet medium. The music on the album traces the passage of Italian styles across Germany while remaining firmly rooted in the chorale tradition, and the composers' flexibility in combining these elements must have had a general impact on the most talented Bach of them all. The performances of the small Vox Luminis choir with the Scorpio Collectief -- a quintet of winds and brasses with organ continuo -- are generally sparse, with one voice per part. This is questionable in music that took the great cathedral choirs of Venice for its performance model, but it's listenable and puts across the stylistic distinctions effectively. Recommended for Bach fans.© TiVo

In this volume recorded on April 23-25, 2000, in the Georgenkirche in Eisenach -- the town of Bach's birth and the church of his baptism -- John Eliot Gardiner has programmed two cantatas for Easter Sunday -- Christ lag in Todesbandend (Christ lies in the Bonds of Death) (BWV 4) and Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret! (The Heavens Laugh! The Earth Rejoices) (BWV 31) -- two cantatas for Easter Monday -- Erfeut euch, ihr Herzen (Rejoice, Heart) (BWV 66) and Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden (Remain with us, it is towards evening and the day is far spent) (BWV 6) -- and two cantatas for Easter Tuesday -- Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiss (The heart that truly knows Jesus) (BWV 134) and Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergotzen (I live, my heart, for your salvation) (BWV 145). And every movement in every work is suffused with spirituality, from the dark night of the soul that is Christ lag in Todesbandend to the bright rejoicing of Der Himmel lacht! to the ethereal serenity of Ich lebe, mein Herze. Although there have certainly been other musical, beautiful, and even spiritual recordings of Bach's cantatas in the past and will surely be other fine recordings of the same ilk in the future, these recordings are bound to be special for a long time. As always in this series, no matter what the venue, the recordings are vivid and immediate. © TiVo

Conductor John Eliot Gardiner, said England's Independent newspaper, "has had the last laugh" -- Vol. 1 of his Bach cantata series was named Record of the Year at the 2005 Classic FM Gramophone Awards in London, after the big Deutsche Grammophon label pulled out of the project and dropped Gardiner just before it got underway in 2000. No doubt a bit of gloating is appropriate along with justified satisfaction in a tough job well done -- Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists undertook a "Bach cantata pilgrimage," singing all of Bach's cantatas on their liturgically appropriate dates while making a grand tour of acoustically appropriate European churches, many of them with links to the original circumstances in which Bach worked. The recordings, Gardiner said, were "a corollary of the concerts, not their raison d'être" prior to each night's concert, engineers recorded the final rehearsal in situ. By the time these recordings were made in London, the concert series was well under way, and, in the words of bass Dietrich Henschel, the performers "had become spiritually familiar with one another." The results, issued on Gardiner's own SDG label, fully live up to the awards hype. Gardiner's interpretations, though they fall under the historical-performance classification, are personal, subjective, dramatic, and romantic. The program naturally coheres thanks to the common origins of the works in the phases of the liturgical year around which Bach organized his thinking (six cantatas are presented on two discs, three for the Feast of St. John the Baptist in mid-June and three for the first Sunday after Trinity), and every element of the sumptuous booklet presentation contributes to an appreciation of Bach's religious language, as audiences in German churches of the eighteenth century would have understood it. So Gardiner has indeed had the last laugh. But perhaps he would be the first to concede that the difficult birth of this project helped him push classical music toward its future, and even that the music is perhaps better, more urgent, than it might otherwise have been. In place of what would have been a series of implacably standardized albums on Deutsche Grammophon, we will now have releases that are individual, committed, and free. Gardiner's liner notes are taken from journals he wrote during the Bach pilgrimage, and they help bring home the immediacy and excitement of this project. The next step, as recordings like this move online, will be to turn this kind of journal into a blog. The old superstructure of the classical recording industry is collapsing into ruin, but this recording provides some of the clearest testimony yet that new and exciting small enterprises will fill the void. © TiVo

With its forty-five chorale preludes, the Orgelbüchlein bears witness to a mastery of the art of improvisation on the organ, as the congregation heard it at the time before singing the hymn in its turn. It was a tempting experiment to revive this primary function: by collaborating with the combined forces of the Ensemble Vocal Bergamasque and the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, Benjamin Alard gives the "little organ book" its full significance and expressive power. © harmonia mundi

With the John Eliot Gardiner "Bach Cantata Pilgrimage" series, as issued on Soli Deo Gloria, all recorded during a live tour and gradually parsed out in packages practically identical in appearance, one can be forgiven for some confusion regarding this series. Although this is Bach Cantatas, Vol. 2, and was recorded in Paris and Zurich in the summer of 2000, the two-disc set is the 24th issue in the series and was not released until the spring of 2010, patiently waiting almost a full decade for its turn in the release sequence. The Paris performance on the first disc features Bach's cantatas for the Second Sunday After Trinity (BWVs 2, 10, and 76) along with Heinrich Schütz's motet "Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes," which shares the same melody as Bach's source for BWV 76. The second, Zurich performance includes Bach's cantatas for the Third Sunday After Trinity, BWV 21 and 135, only, so the program is filled out with a performance of the Triple Concerto in A minor, BWV 1044. Soloists include Stephen Varcoe and Daniel Taylor in Paris and Katharine Fuge in Zurich; oddly, the instrumental soloists in BWV 1044 are not singled out in the package notes, though they are more than likely section leaders from within the English Baroque Soloists. Though top billed, the Monteverdi Choir is heard only intermittently of course, but enough to reserve its rightful place as the star of the show, apart from Gardiner himself.These performances are to some extent conditioned by the vagaries of live recording; the sound in Paris' Basilique Saint-Denis is good but not awesome, whereas in Zurich's Fraumünster Kirche the sound is clearer and has a bit more presence. An important part of the basic concept of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage was that each concert be given in a different European landmark. Alto Daniel Taylor is not having a particularly good night in Paris, but that's not too much of a distraction; overall the soloists, both instrumental and vocal, acquit themselves well although it's a little hard to hear the harpsichord in the Triple Concerto. All of the performances are crisp and professional, and there is something of a traditional aspect to them; Gardiner clearly prefers a romantic approach in the handling of the chorus and the band is a little bigger than a typical, one-or-two-to-a-part period instrument ensemble. If a listener is already investing in this series, then Soli Deo Gloria's Bach Cantatas, Vol. 2, should more or less deliver what the others in the same series put forth. However, if the listener is only looking for a recording of one or even all of these pieces, weighing one's relative options might not be a fruitless task.© TiVo

Bach's 199 surviving sacred cantatas form a repertoire of masterpieces that defy comprehension. It's not just that there are so many of them, it's that every one is unique, exemplified by the seven cantatas on the third volume of John Eliot Gardiner's Bach cantata pilgrimage, three for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity recorded at Tewkesbury Abbey and four for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity recorded at the Blasuiskirche in Muhlhausen. The Tewkesbury cantatas feature a celebratory central choral sung by the strong-voiced Monteverdi Choir in Ein ungefärbt Gemute, BWV 24, a stately aria sung by lush-toned alto Nathalie Stutzman in Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe, BWV 185, and a dancing aria cum trio sonata sung by dulcet-toned soprano Magdalena Kozená accompanied by a wonderfully lyrical obligato bassoon in Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 177. The Muhlhausen cantatas are even richer, with the mournful triple-time chorale that opens Aus dem Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131, and the doleful chorale fantasia for soloists and choir that opens Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten, BWV 93, plus the blissful duet in Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden, BWV 88, sung with pure, clear tone by alto William Towers and soprano Joanne Lunn. While listeners unfamiliar with the cantatas may initially be intimidated by the size and variety of these works, the sheer beauty of Bach's inspired settings will keep pulling them back. As always in his Bach cantata pilgrimage, Gardiner stresses the bright and hopeful over the dark and despairing even in the gloomiest cantatas, and he elicits powerfully affecting but rhythmically flexible playing from the English Baroque Soloists even in the dourest movements. Despite the change in countries and venues, the digital sound here is close enough to spotlight the soloists and distant enough to encompass the ringing chorals. © TiVo