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Französischer Jahrgang, Vol. 1
Gutenberg Soloists
Classical - Released January 14, 2022 | CPO
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Booklet
Complete cantatas of the "Französischer Jahrgang", Vol. 1. Another large-scale, incredibly exciting project is dedicated to the world’s very first complete recording of an entire annual cycle with seventy-two church cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann for large ensembles (Frankfurt, 1714-1715). This project directed by Felix Koch is particularly committed to including young soloists chosen by the "Telemann Project" for performances together with proven specialists in the field of Baroque song. All the singers perform in the "Gutenberg Soloists" vocal ensemble consisting of twelve members – in accordance with the Baroque practice in which the solo parts are assumed by members of the choral ensemble. Things get underway with this first volume, which present cantatas from the late summer of 1715 and five additional cantatas for the Lenten season from the cycle known as the "French Annual cycle". A significant reference is found on the original Frankfurt organ part of Telemann’s cantata Gott schweige doch nicht also from this year: "Judica, from the French Annual Cycle". What this means is that the cantata concerned was intended for the Fifth Sunday in Lent; that is, it belonged precisely to the annual cycle of church cantatas that even contemporaries called "French" because of its style. This is music worth discovering – and not only by and for Telemann fans! © CPO
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Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Czech Philharmonic
Symphonies - Released April 7, 2023 | PentaTone
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Booklet
The duo of conductor Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic performed Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in C minor ("Resurrection") beginning in the late 2010s, and it is no surprise that by the time of this 2023 release, the third in their series of Mahler symphonies, they had it down to a science. This is not an overly emotive Mahler Second; for a sense of panic and sardonic angst in the symphony's darker earlier phases, consider recordings by Simon Rattle or even Leonard Bernstein. However, that is not the only way to look at Mahler, and Bychkov's soberer approach has a good deal of value. He takes the music at a deliberate pace; at an hour and 26 minutes, this giant work is about six minutes slower than average, and he allows room for a striking wealth of instrumental detail from what is undoubtedly one of the greatest orchestras on the European continent. As the storm and stress build toward the final vocal transfiguration, there is real power here. The soloists are both fine, but soprano Christiane Karg in the final "Aufersteh'n" is a standout. PentaTone's engineers do a superb job in Prague's Rudolfinum, giving the hall's magnificent organ its due and creating space for a good deal of the orchestral detail. A superb Mahler Second that made classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Lieder (Berg, Schumann, Wolf, Shostakovich, Brahms)
Matthias Goerne
Classical - Released June 10, 2022 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Choc de Classica
Matthias Goerne not only performs at the highest level as a baritone himself, but his piano accompaniments also rank among the Champions League of classical music. For his first album, which was dedicated to Beethoven songs, he brought Jan Lisiecki on board. This was followed by the album Abendrot with melodies by Wagner and Strauss, among others, together with the young talent Seong-Jin Cho. Now we may experience the baritone in duo with the world-class Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, presenting us with a metaphysical program of Berg, Schumann, Wolf, Shostakovich and Brahms.The combination of music and poetry was brought to a climax in the form of the Romantic art song by Franz Schubert. The composers presented here build on this tradition, and despite the wide, temporal span of their publications - there are 135 years between Schumann's Dichterliebe and Shostakovich's Michelangelo Suite - the closeness and significance to the text and its authors is equally evident in all of them. Schumann's Dichterliebe is probably one of the best examples of this: the setting of Heinrich Heine's texts brings together two masters of Romanticism who could not be better interpreted by Goerne and Trifonov. Themes of impossible love and human suffering are unfolded through extremes in the monologue as well as the music, with Goerne maintaining this "strong sensitivity" throughout. In the same vein, the unspoken finds its place on the piano and takes on much more than just an accompanying role in his interpretation - as well as in art song in general. Trifonov is in direct musical dialogue with Goerne, the two artists communicating at eye level.A similar symbiosis is evident in the Michelangelo musical settings by Wolf and Shostakovich. By abandoning tonality in the latter, the connection between piano and spoken word is again reinforced on another level. A unique duo project by two contemporary greats whose paths will hopefully cross more often. © Lena Germann/Qobuz
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Bach : St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-Passion)
René Jacobs
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released October 7, 2013 | harmonia mundi
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J.S. Bach : Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (Passion selon saint Matthieu)
Philippe Herreweghe
Classical - Released July 31, 2007 | harmonia mundi
Booklet
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Paradise Lost
Anna Prohaska
Classical - Released April 10, 2020 | Alpha Classics
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The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré’s Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell’s Sleep, Adam, sleep with its references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms’s Salamander, Wolf’s Die Bekehrte or Ravel’s Air du Feu. In Das Paradies und die Peri, Schumann conjures up the image of Syria’s rose-covered plains. Bernstein also transports us to the desert with Silhouette.. John Milton’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Paradise Lost was the inspiration for Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, also featured in this very rich programme that constitutes an invitation to travel and reflection. © Alpha Classics
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Bach : St Matthew Passion (Édition 5.1)
René Jacobs
Classical - Released October 7, 2013 | harmonia mundi
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Choc Classica de l'année
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Buxtehude : Abendmusiken
Vox Luminis
Sacred Vocal Music - Released June 8, 2018 | Alpha Classics
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In 1668, Dietrich Buxtehude, then thirty one years old, took up the very sought-after tenure of organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, then a Hanseatic metropolis of considerable relevance; the organist had at that time one of the most desirable social statuses. He soon caused a sensation with the church concerts he held outside of religious services and that happened every year, in the early evening, on the five Sundays preceding Christmas. During these “Abendmusiken” (vespertine music), as they were called, were sometimes performed great works falling withing the oratorio genre, but more often was performed a mix of instrumental pieces, church tunes, psalm arrangements and cantata-like works. From the 1700s, these series of concerts had become a major cultural event of the city. Released from the daily handling of religious music handled by the Marienkirche’s Cantor—as was often the case at the time in North Germany—, Buxtehude only composed works on his own initiative, which allowed him to give them a quality level noticeably higher than that of the Cantor, for example, forced to compose non-stop, from one Sunday to another. The cantatas recorded here demonstrate the high artistic ambitions of these vocal works: they often digress from stylistic and generic conventions of their time and answer the tasks imposed by the texts with bold musical solutions, daring and absolutely splendid. The sonatas from Buxtehude completing the vocal program of this disc are also characterized by their markedly experimental character. Olivier Fortin’s Masques Ensemble—recorder, strings, positive organ—and Lionel Meunier’s Vox Luminis join forces to offer us these gems from the turn of the North German 18th century, such gems that the young Bach didn’t hesitate, in 1705, to travel on foot from Arnstadt—a 100-league trip—to come listen to Buxtehude, his organ play and probably his famous Abendmusiken. © SM/Qobuz
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The Imaginary Music Book of J.S. Bach
Café Zimmermann
Classical - Released October 1, 2021 | Alpha Classics
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Johann Sebastian Bach has made the reputation of Café Zimmermann ever since the ensemble was formed in 1999. This new recording presents the music of the Kantor from a different angle, that of the notebooks in which musicians wrote down pieces and movements they particularly liked. This recording brings together works composed by Bach in the late 1740s which may be described as intimate in character, including the famous Trio Sonata from his Musical Offering. The Baroque idiom of this "experimental" sonata is contextualised by the innovative style developed by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel in one of his own trio sonatas. A number of arias by J. S. Bach are also presented here with exclusively instrumental forces. Under the direction of violinist Pablo Valetti and harpsichordist Céline Frisch, the ensemble even ventures into Mozartian territory with the Aria and Fugue, K. 404a, taken from two pieces by Bach that Mozart himself had annotated and arranged in his own musical notebook. Finally, a chorale that Bach was particularly fond of, a three-part fugue played here by harpsichord and flute. Carl Philipp Emanuel had it printed at the end of his father’s musical testament, The Art of Fugue: "Before thy throne I now appear". © Alpha Classics
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Bach : Sonn und Schild. Cantatas BWV 4, 79, 80
Philippe Herreweghe
Cantatas (sacred) - Released September 21, 2018 | Phi
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For the fourth time on the Phi label, Philippe Herreweghe presents three cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach – Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4, Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79, and Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80. Written at different moments in the composer’s life and based to a large extent on the works of Martin Luther, these cantatas reflect a marked taste for dramaturgy, vivid word painting and an invariably astonishing use of instruments and voices. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent give us an accomplished version of these masterpieces, confirming, if further proof were needed, their stature as ardent champions of Bach. © Outhere Music
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J.S. Bach : Consolatio
Philippe Pierlot
Cantatas (sacred) - Released February 16, 2018 | Mirare
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Gramophone Editor's Choice -
Diapason d'or / Arte
The cantata Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe (Jesus gathered the twelve to Himself) BWV 22, holds a historic place in Bach’s work. Indeed he composed it while still in Köthen, as an audition piece for the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and then conducted it on February 7th, 1723, maybe even singing the bass part himself. Famously the city council, unable to convince its preferred composers – Telemann, Graupner and two others –, decided to settle with “mediocre” Bach… The gospel of the day first announces his death and his resurrection by Christ and his disciplines. A modest orchestra: voices, strings, one oboe and continuo, but the musical content is – like in almost all of Bach’s cantatas – amongst the best he’s ever written. For the same celebration, Bach composed a new cantata the following year, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott (Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God) BWV 127. But it has almost nothing in common with the previous piece: here Bach offers a very impressive reflection on physical death. Throughout his cantatas he called for a blessed death to free himself from the vicissitudes of life on Earth, but this now reveals how much he may have feared physical death itself. The aria ”Die Seele ruht” is one of these sublime moments suspended in time, an ineffable tintinnabulum, in which the soprano and the oboe dialogue on a harrowing theme while the flutes and string pizzicatos symbolise the passing of time with incredible beauty. Finally it’s with Die Elenden sollen essen (The miserable shall eat) BWV 75 that Bach started off his work in Leipzig, in St. Nicholas Church this time, as the cantatas were alternately performed in both churches. Probably because he wanted to start with a bang, he designed this cantata on a huge scale: fourteen numbers, divided in two parts. Of course Bach would have never been able to produce such vast and powerful partitions on a weekly basis, but there is a real substance to this Passion… and it’s with great passion that Philippe Pierlot, his Ricercar Consort and the soloists perform these masterpieces. © SM/Qobuz
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Reinhard Keiser : Markuspassion
Joël Suhubiette
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released March 23, 2015 | Mirare
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Diapason d'or -
4F de Télérama
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Johann Sebastian Bach : Ich elender Mensch & Leipzig Cantatas (BWV 44, 48, 73, 109)
Collegium Vocale Gent
Cantatas (sacred) - Released December 20, 2013 | Phi
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Gramophone Editor's Choice -
4 étoiles Classica
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Bach, J.S.: Cantatas, Vol. 22 - Bwv 4, 6, 31, 134, 145
Monteverdi Choir
Classical - Released January 1, 2000 | SDG
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
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Bach: Was mein Gott will - Cantatas BWV 5, 33, 94, 111, 113, 135, 178
Christoph Spering
Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | deutsche harmonia mundi
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Bach: Cantatas 35 & 169 "Geist und Seele" & "Gott soll allein"
Iestyn Davies
Classical - Released February 4, 2022 | Hyperion
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Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben - Bach: Cantatas BWV 6-99-147
Collegium Vocale Gent
Classical - Released September 1, 2023 | Phi
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4F de Télérama
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Wagner: Parsifal
Jonas Kaufmann
Classical - Released March 1, 2024 | Sony Classical
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Choc de Classica
The world was due for a major new recording of Wagner's Parsifal, with some years having elapsed since the monster, four-hour work had seen a fresh one. There are a number of attractions to this one, recorded live at the Vienna State Opera in 2021. First is the production, designed and directed from house arrest in Russia by Kirill Serebrennikov. The version was controversial at the time, and subsequent events have made it timely. Serebrennikov transplants the tale to a modern prison, with characters in tracksuits and the like; the complex witch Kundry is (believe it or not) a photojournalist. None of this affects the singing, which is done straight, but the release graphics give one an idea. The major draw for many listeners, and probably the one that put the album on classical best-seller charts in early 2024, will be the presence of star tenor Jonas Kaufmann, in fine form in the title role (and album listeners get to avoid the flashback staging designed to circumvent that fact that the 50-something Kaufmann was playing a young man). The instrumental work from the Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper is very strong. However, what really puts this performance in the history books is the performance of mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca as Kundry. This was apparently her first appearance in a Wagner opera, but in the top-volume material in Act III, she is fully Kaufmann's equal. Some may find that she carries the whole production, with a rising line of intensity running through the whole giant structure. In any event, even listeners who own the Parsifal of Herbert von Karajan or one of the other classic readings will want to check this recording out.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Der ferne Klang... Orchestral Works & Songs by Franz Schreker
Konzerthausorchester Berlin
Classical - Released March 17, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Booklet
In the early '20s, Franz Schreker was one of the best-known composers in the world. His music was suppressed by the Nazis because he was Jewish, and due to the High Modernism of the postwar period, a second totalitarianism, his reputation did not recover. This was a shame, for Schreker was anything but a conservative, and it is good to see that he is finally getting his due. What he needed at this point was a high-profile recording with top soloists, and that is exactly what he gets here from Christoph Eschenbach and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, with soprano Chen Reiss and baritone Matthias Goerne. Deutsche Grammophon's PR text refers to "Schreker's sumptuous, hyper-Romantic music," but this is not quite right. Schreker could sometimes be that, as in the Romantische Suite that closes the album, but Straussian late Romanticism was only one of his influences. In terms of using tone color as a structural element, Schreker was in every way a contemporary of Schoenberg (his close friend) and Webern. Eschenbach's generous selection of orchestral songs here provides a good way to appreciate this quality; sample Die Dunkelheit sinkt schwer wie Blei from the Fünf Gesänge, with its mysterious strumming-like sounds. The text of that song is from a German translation of the Thousand and One Nights anthology, and Reiss sounds great in the Zwei lyrische Gesänge to texts (in German) by, of all people, Walt Whitman. Schreker could be neoclassic (in the economical Kleine Suite); he could be Impressionist-tinged; he mastered a full Expressionist idiom in the opera that gives the album its title, represented here by a substantial instrumental excerpt. This double-album release conveys the breadth of Schreker's musical language, but he is never blankly eclectic. A wonderful album that will help to rewrite the 20th century canon.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Trinitatis: Bach Cantatas
Damien Guillon
Classical - Released March 31, 2023 | Alpha Classics
Hi-Res
Booklet
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