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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

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

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

“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

Organ player and harpsichordist, titular player of the Aubertin organ of the Saint-Louis-en l'Île church in Paris, where he regularly plays Bach in concert, Benjamin Alard is an unstoppable talent. Passionate about the world of Johann Sebastian Bach, this young man, "reserved, with an understated sense of humour", has undertaken a complete recording of the Cantor's keyboard works for harmonia mundi. The project is vast, and has never before been completed by a single musician. Benjamin Alard's very original approach is based on the idea of taking on this vast catalogue split into fourteen chapters, following the timeline of the composer's life, describing his influences, his travels and his professional choices. Every volume is to be thought of as a series of episodes retracing the life and works of the Cantor of Leipzig. This first volume paints a picture of "the young heir", whose music is still very much a tribute to his predecessors, such as Georg Böhm, Johann Kuhnau, Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Pachelbel, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Louis Marchand and Johann Jakob Froberger. The instruments used for this complete recording have been selected, thankfully, with great care. Recorded in May 2017, this first volume uses the Silberman organ in Sainte-Aurélie in Strasbourg, a superb instrument built in 2017, which benefited from a magnificent restoration in 2015, to mark its tricentenary. As for the harpsichord, it is a modern instrument produced by manufacturer Émile Jobin, inspired by models from Ruckers and Dulcken. A young man of his times, Benjamin Alard accompanies this complete works with an original idea: every work is recorded and published separately on streaming and download sites (like Qobuz), along with videos on social media. © François Hudry/Qobuz

The 22nd and final volume in Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir's series of recordings of Bach's cantatas includes two of his final Lutheran cantatas, all four of his short Catholic masses based on movements taken from earlier cantatas, and an early secular version of one of the sacred cantatas plus arrangements of two movements of the other sacred cantata by Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann. And like every other volume in this series, it is a thorough-going triumph. In the extremely well-known Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God) BWV 80, Koopman and his forces turn in a performance as celebratory as it is soulful. In the extravagantly festive Freue dich, erlöste Schar (Be happy, saved crowd) BWV 30 -- or in the equally extravagantly festive Angenehmes Wiedrau (Most charming Wiedrau) BWV 30a as it's known in its secular transformation -- their performances are as sublime as they are joyous. In all four masses, their performances are as devotional as they are musical. And in W.F. Bach's take on his father's music, their performances are as insightful as they are individualistic. Anyone who enjoys Bach's music will enjoy this volume, or, for that matter, any other volume in Koopman's cantata series. If you can only collect one cycle of Bach's cantatas, this is the one to get. As T.S. Eliot once said in another context, Antonie Marchand's sound is here, now, always. © TiVo

After the completion of the magisterial touring sequence of Bach cantatas from conductor John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, it seems that the prolific music-making will continue with non-cantata works. This strong recording of Bach's Easter Oratorio, BWV 249, was released just in time for the 2014 Easter holiday and should find the same demand as the rest of Gardiner's output. The Easter Oratorio is more an oversized cantata than a full-scale treatment with narrator, chorus, and soloists in the manner of Bach's other large religious works; it has no narrating Evangelist, consists mostly of solos in dialogue with each other, and apparently was actually adapted from an earlier pastoral birthday cantata. The performance here has the positives typical of Gardiner's Bach recordings: warmth, deep familiarity with the texts, and smooth ensemble work born of long acquaintance among the musicians. The choir of 23 is perfectly sized for the work, and the sound, with Gardiner's engineers no longer constrained by the requirements of the churches where the ensemble appeared on tour, is unusually clear. The soloists are drawn from the choir, a slight negative given that the Easter Oratorio stands or falls on its solos; they actually do better in the intimate funeral Cantata No. 106, BWV 106 ("Actus Tragicus"), that opens the program. In general, though, this is a release that Gardiner fans will be glad to have.© TiVo