For the First Sunday after Easter, John Eliot Gardiner and his Bach cantata pilgrimage took themselves to the Johann Sebastian-Bach-Kirche in Arnstadt, Thuringia -- so named because it was the 18-year-old Bach's first professional post -- to perform and record four cantatas on April 29 and 30, 2000: Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (Unto Thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul) (BWV 150), Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ (Remember that Jesus Christ) (BWV 67), Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats (Then the same day at evening) (BWV 42), and Der Friede sei mit dir (Peace be with you) (BWV 158). With his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, plus soprano Gillian Keith, alto Daniel Taylor, tenor Charles Daniels, and bass Stephen Varcoe, Gardiner paints a colorful, devotional portrait of Bach as a young Lutheran composer eager to prove his musical skill and his spiritual commitment. For the Second Sunday after Easter, Gardiner and his Pilgrimage went west to the Basilique St. Willibrord in Echternach, Luxembourg -- an eleventh century abbey rebuilt as a modern twentieth century church after its near complete destruction in the Second World War -- to perform and record three cantatas on May 7, 2000: Du Hirte Israel, höre (You shepherd of Israel, hear us) (BWV 104), Ich bin ein guter Hirt (I am the faithful shepherd) (BWV 85), and Der Herr is mein getreuer Hirt (The Lord is my true shepherd) (BWV 112). With the Choir and Soloists plus soprano Katherine Fuge, alto William Towers, tenor Norbert Meyn, and, once again bass Stephen Varcoe, Gardiner illuminates Bach's three views of the 23rd Psalm. As always in this superlative series, Gardiner leads performances that are consummately musical, supremely spiritual, and immensely compelling, and no matter what the age or shape of the venue, SDG Records and Monteverdi Productions grant them clean, direct, and vivid sound. © TiVo

Reissued for the first time in its entirety and magnificently restored by Christophe Hénault at his Art et Son studio in Annecy from the original soundtracks, this first complete Bach work signed by Marie-Claire Alain is of stunning beauty. Recorded between 1959 and 1967 on various historical instruments in Denmark, Sweden and Germany, this recording, described by the performer herself as "the most instinctive" of the three she recorded, benefits from remarkable sound recordings that perfectly showcase the instruments chosen by the great French organist. Fighting from her youth against the mathematical rigidity with which Bach's music was too often treated, she strove instead to release its vital energy, leaving aside an overly strong dialectic and countering the overly emotional. This great artist was well aware that organ music, and Bach's in particular, had to be modelled on each instrument used, adapting its playing, sound and technique to each occasion. « For each concert I give », she said, « I am obliged to rework each work according to the instrument I have at my disposal.»Disappeared on February 27, 2013 at the age of eighty-six, Marie-Claire Alain had put an end to her career in 2010 after having given more than 2,500 concerts and recorded 250 discs that still retain their great historical value. (Qobuz / François Hudry)Record label note : This very first re-release on CD of Marie-Claire Alain’s first complete recording of Bach’s organ works has benefited from meticulous cleaning up of the original tapes. The very color of analog sound is preserved in all its purity. On a few tracks, it proved impossible to remove some minor noise and extraneous sounds that were captured during the recording sessions and which can still be heard. However, these defects are fortunately very few in number and do not detract in any way from the superb audio quality of these newly restored recordings of some exceptional performances. We will dwell on the poetic and perfectly balanced tones of the Varde organ, probably Marie-Claire Alain's favourite. Marie-Claire Alain plays the following organs (specified in each track) : — Denmark : Marcussen Organ, St.Jacobs Church, Varde (CDs 1, 2, 4, 12, 13, 14, 15) – Frobenius Organ, St.Nicholas Church, Middelfart (CDs 5, 6) – Marcussen Organ, St. Paul Church, Aarhus (CDs 6, 7, 8) – Marcussen Organ, St. Mary’s Church, Sønderborg (CDs 8, 9) – Marcussen Organ, Christians Church, Sønderborg (CDs 8, 9) – Marcussen Organ, Holmens Church, Copenhagen (CDs 9, 10, 11) – Marcussen Organ, St. Nicholas Church, Aabenraa (CD 13)  — Sweden : Marcussen Organ, St. Mary Church, Helsingborg (CDs 2, 3, 5) — Germany : Marcussen Organ, St. Peter's Cathedral (Dom), Schleswig (CD 11)

Masaaki Suzuki's Bach organ recordings, something of a labor of love after the completion of his magisterial cantata cycle, have been well-received; this one landed on classical best-seller charts in early 2024. It is the second of a pair recorded on a 1737 organ at the Stiftskirche St. Georg in Grauhof, Lower Saxony, Germany. The builder was Christoph Treutmann, one of the greats of the age, and if it is not an organ Bach played, it is certainly one he would have regarded as state-of-the-art. Both this release and its predecessor, Vol. 4 in Suzuki's series, feature intricate chorale settings from the Orgelbüchlein, played on this organ and tied to the liturgical year; this volume features chorales for Easter (and the album was released just in time for that holiday) along with other settings and a few framing preludes and fugues. Suzuki on the organ is recognizably the same musician who led the Bach Collegium Japan on his famed cantata recordings; he is lofty, precise, and warm. The Treutmann organ is ideal for both the repertory and the performer; in many registrations it has an edgy, rather acid sound that clarifies Bach's complex polyphony beautifully. Also, sample the double setting of "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier," with its contrasting textures. The BIS label's well-known engineering expertise is applied profitably to this small German church on a recording that one suspects Bach would have greatly admired.© James Manheim /TiVo

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

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

“A great joy”: this is how Masaaki Suzuki considers this, his second recording of the St. Matthew’s Passion, made twenty years after the first one, in the Saitama Arts Theatre in Japan in April 2019 for the BIS label. A great opportunity to revisit the work, as in the elapsed time, the conductor and his orchestra have nearly completely recorded Bach’s choral music, including the complete masses and secular and sacred cantatas. As is his custom, Suzuki works with European soloists for this new recording, like the splendid young German tenor Benjamin Bruns, playing the stupendous part of the Evangelist. There are other familiar soloists that feature here, such as Carolyn Sampson, Damien Guillon, Makoto Sakurada and Christian Immler. There is nothing monumental about this new intimate and refined version, which follows the fateful narrative with great sobriety. There is nevertheless a fervent level of impulse, as well as a certain innocence within this resolutely pared back Lutheran perspective - there is never any real search for theatricality. The exceptional instrumental quality of the soloists of the Bach Collegium Japan and the soft touches of the two choral ensembles is also worth highlighting. © François Hudry / Qobuz

Are these the best, the deepest, the profoundest -- in a word, the greatest -- recordings of these four Bach cantatas ever made? What a silly question! Indeed, what an utterly beside-the-point question and surely a question that neither the conductor, the performers, or even the composer would ever have thought to ask. The real question is: are these recordings musically, emotionally, and spiritually honest recordings, that is, do they capture the true essence of the works? And the answer to that question is a grateful "yes." While John Eliot Gardiner has not always been ideally matched with the repertoire he's recorded -- does anyone recall his Janácek Sinfonetta or Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances? -- he has always been ideally suited to the music of the Baroque -- who cannot recall his Monteverdi Vespers or his Handel Messiah? -- and his series of Bach cantatas has been as good as the best things he's ever recorded. In these performances with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists recorded in New York on Christmas 2000, Gardiner has created recordings that may or may not be in the same league with Richter, Harnoncourt, Leonhardt, or Koopman but that are certainly absolutely musically, emotionally, and spiritually as one with the works. The beauty of the melodies, the clarity of the part writing, the rightness of the harmonies, the lightness of the rhythms, the color of the scoring? All are as one with the music. The joy, the sorrow, the exaltation, the anguish, the excitement? All are as one with the texts. The awe, the dread, the glory, the wonder, the bliss? All are as one with Bach's fusion of music and texts. Are these then the best recordings of these four Bach cantatas ever made? Does it really matter? Anyone who loves these cantatas will love this disc. © TiVo

Johann Sebastian Bach left us three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord. He made various transcriptions of the gamba sonata in G major, one of which was of the last movement as a trio sonata for organ. Several movements of the six organ trio sonatas themselves are also reworkings of previously composed material from his cantatas, organ and chamber works. This practice inspired the "Bach for Two" programme by Romina Lischka and Marnix De Cat, in which they have assembled the most beautiful combinations of viola da gamba and organ in both original and arranged versions of Bach’s chorale preludes and trios. Bach is a master of both the head and the heart. With text and melody as his starting point, he created small musical worlds in his chorale preludes for organ and takes the listener on the most varied of inner journeys. To experience musical joy, to find inner peace through every possible emotion, to be comforted in one’s search or sorrow, to be moved to the depths of one’s being - this is the art of Bach, the magician of sound. © Ramée