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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

Just about but not quite completely negligible, Diego Fasolis' disc of three of Bach's darker Cantatas performed with the mealy mouthed Coro della Radio Svizzera of Lugano and the fumble-fingered I Barocchisti is almost but not altogether terrible. In Bach's doleful Trauer-Ode, Fasolis' tempos are far too fast, his understanding way too superficial, and only Nancy Argenta cool soprano saves the performance from ignominy. In Bach's consoling Actus tragicus, Fasolis' rhythms are far too flaccid and his understanding is still way too superficial and Nancy Argenta's icy soprano does nothing to save the performance from embarrassment. In Bach's ardent Der Herr denket an uns, Fasolis' textures are turgid, his understanding is even more superficial and while the conspicuous addition of tuned bells to the orchestra does nothing to save the performance from disgrace, it sure does add to the amusement value of the disc. After all, how many other discs featuring "authentic" performances of Bach include tuned bells? Arts' sound is shallow, dry, and close.© TiVo

Bach's secular cantatas are not terribly often performed, with the comic Coffee Cantata, BWV 211, probably the most common one. This release is the sixth in the series of secular cantata CDs (are you surprised that there are so many?) by the Bach Collegium Japan under the indefatigable Masaaki Suzuki. The only true Bach work is the first one, Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl, BWV 198, known as the "Trauerode" or "Mourning Ode." This is an elaborate and richly scored work, written for the funeral of the wife of the Elector of Saxony, that matches the ambitions of Bach's larger sacred cantatas and differs from those stylistically principally in the greater proportion of pictorial effects. Sample the ingenious bells in the recitative, "Der Glocken bebendes Getön" (track four). Suzuki benefits from an above-average set of soloists here, even by the standards of his ongoing complete Bach edition. The cantata Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden, BWV 1083, is a true Bach oddity, a transcription and German retexting of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, made for unknown reasons late in Bach's life. Not really a secular cantata (Bach uses the text of Psalm 51), the setting offers Pergolesi's original opportunities for vocal display, and soprano Carolyn Sampson is worth hearing here just as much as in the original. The middle work on the program, Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, BWV 53, was long attributed to Bach but has now been deemed an effective copy of his style by Georg Melchior Hoffmann; it is a countertenor aria beautifully sung by frequent Suzuki collaborator Robin Blaze. This music may be fairly deep in Bach's catalog, but it will hardly disappoint anyone who acquires it.© TiVo

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The Bach cantata pilgrimage of conductor John Eliot Gardiner, with his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, began on Christmas of 1999 and continued through the year 2000. At first the musicians retraced some of Bach's steps through northern Germany, then performed in a variety of churches in England and northwestern Europe, matching the cantatas as closely as possible to the events in the liturgical year for which they were intended. It was an impressive logistical undertaking, supported financially by the Prince of Wales, among others, and the handsomely packaged live recordings that emerged from the project have taken several years to appear. This one is an excellent example of why they were worth the wait. There's nothing so radical about Gardiner's interpretations; he uses a moderate-sized choir at a time when the cutting-edge favors very small groups or even one voice per part, and his soloists, while more than competent, aren't the sort around whom a performance can be organized, as with some of the recent Bach cantata discs directed by Ton Koopman. Where Gardiner excels is in the pure human understanding of the texts Bach sets and of his response to them. Hear the almost sarcastic tone of the opening bass aria of the Cantata No. 181, Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister, BWV 181 (CD 2, track 6, the only possible complaint against the packaging is that there is no full tracklist other than the German and English texts of the cantatas themselves), or the militantly anti-Catholic and anti-"Turkish" (it's not only the Jews who get rough treatment from Bach) Cantata No. 126, "Erhalte uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort," BWV 126. Here Gardiner pushes tenor James Gilchrist to the absolute limit in the at first deceptively prayerful but soon over-the-top aria "Sende deine Macht von oben" (CD 2, track 12); Gardiner's conception of the overall mood rules the interpretation. He expands on those conceptions, taking into account historical and musicological matters, in booklet notes, based on his own journals during the trip, and these are in many cases worth the purchase price by themselves; they offer exceptional syntheses of technical and critical perspectives. Gardiner's Bach series isn't the most "perfect" available, but it may be the most profound. The sound in both these locations (one in the Netherlands, one in Britain) is clear, aided perhaps by backup rehearsal recordings made in case of fluffed notes or coughing audiences. © TiVo