The labels lately established by performing organizations have mostly been devoted to new releases, but there is a lot to be said for using them to resurrect historical performances and recordings. These tend to be ones that have hung in people's memories for years, well after newer recordings have become available. There couldn't be a better example than this, the first historical release from the Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings label. It reproduces a 1984 live performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah, Op. 70 (as Elias, in the original German) from the Nationaltheater München, with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Chor des städtischen Musikvereins zu Düsseldorf. (The latter got involved because the Bayerischer Staatsopernchor was unavailable, but the choir acquits itself very well, unsurprisingly inasmuch as Mendelssohn himself was one of its former directors.) Sawallisch was noted for his way with Mendelssohn, to which he brought a noble Germanic tinge that makes a nice contrast with the usual English performances. He never did better than here, and upon hearing that tapes of this performance had been preserved, he is said to have exclaimed, "Thank God they're safe!" The soloists, led by baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role and tenor Peter Schreier as Obadiah, are superb. Another attraction is the hardbound booklet, delving deep into Mendelssohn's philosophical place in German society (really philosophical -- Hegel and his dialectic come into it). The live sound from 1984 is impressive indeed, with crowd noise kept to an absolute minimum in a superb display of discipline. A wonderful historical reissue that catches the intense drama in Mendelssohn's oratorio.© James Manheim /TiVo

What is it about volume 26 of John Eliot Gardiner's cycle of the complete Bach cantatas that makes it special? Is it the works? All seven cantatas on this two-disc set have their individual beauties, but the last -- Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte, BWV 174 -- starts with a magnificent Sinfonia based on the opening movement of the Third Brandenburg Concerto, only with oboes, horns, and organ, and thus has the added benefit of instant recognition. Is it the performances? As always, Gardiner obtains a bright tone and a robust performance from the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, an approach that brings out the best in these seven mostly celebratory works. Or is it the sometimes out-of-tune singing and the occasionally out-of-tune playing? Most of the soloists are fine -- particularly cheerful soprano Lisa Larsson and chesty alto Nathalie Stutzmann -- and some are excellent -- especially soulful tenor Christoph Genz -- but they, along with the choir, do sometimes slip out of tune. And while most of the playing is first rate -- check out the clarity of the strings and the taste of the continuo -- there are moments when the strings or the winds slid out of tune. Still, since these are all live performances recorded with amazing clarity and presence at Holy Trinity Church in Long Melford in June 2000, these flaws are fairly insignificant compared with the performances' many strengths, and anyone who has enjoyed Gardiner's joyful and direct approach to Bach's cantatas will surely enjoy volume 26. © TiVo

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Aside from the gargantuan logistical problems of moving a chamber orchestra, chorus, soloists, and conductor, plus recording equipment with engineers and producers every week, the aesthetic challenges of John Eliot Gardiner's Bach cantata pilgrimage must have been colossal. Imagine: every week the musicians had to prepare and present three or more cantatas in performances that would bear repeated listenings at home. And yet Gardiner and his forces seem to have succeeded every time. In the two-disc volume 25 of the series, Gardiner includes three cantatas for the fifth Sunday after Easter and three for the Sunday after Ascension Day, and, as always before, they succeed in not only performing the works with smooth professionalism but also ardent enthusiasm. Take just In allen meinen Taten, BWV 97. Its nine movements are wonderfully varied in tone and setting, but also totally unified through musical means. Gardiner and his forces capture both the variety and the unity of the work. Bass Stephen Loges' melancholy aria "Es kan mir nichts" with obbligato bassoon, tenor Steven Davislim's jaunty aria "Ich trause" with virtuoso solo violin, alto Robin Tyson's haunting recitative Er wolle meiner Sünden, and soprano Katharine Fuge's joyous aria "Ihm hab ich mich ergeben" with a pair of obbligato oboes all form part of an organic whole here. Recorded in vivid sound, these performances will be mandatory listening for anyone who reveres Bach's cantatas. © TiVo

Stephan MacLeod wears both his singer and conductor hats for this programme of showcasing J. S. Bach’s treatment of the oboe and the bass voice, two instruments Bach appears to have known intimately. With the oboe, both the oboe da caccia and the oboe d’amore first appeared in Leipzig while Bach was working there, and the body of music he produced for them covers a notably wide range of technical, sonic and expressive capabilities. With the bass voice, this appears to have been Bach’s own vocal type, and his treatment of it is interesting because not only did he put it to a wide variety of dramatic uses, portraying characters from thundering preachers to desperate Christians, but it was also one he appears to have spotted a particular area of expressive strength for: it was the tessitura he used for Christ in the Passions, and for the evocation of God in certain cantatas; then zero in on the four surviving solo bass cantatas presented here, and no fewer than three of them – BWV 56, BWV 82 and BWV 158 – are concerned with portraying death as a hope-filled release from the struggles of the earthly body. To deal with those three cantatas first, the closeness of the relationship here between MacLeod and his period-instrument Gli Angeli Genève is palpable, set off further by his big, rich and rounded vocal tones being a highly complementary foil for the ensemble’s crisply articulated, warm-toned sound; and MacLeod’s delivery of the texts is also all one could hope for, imbued with understanding lightly worn. The oboe element is no less enjoyable, with BWV 56’s aria of closely intertwined bass and oboe lines, ”Endlich, endlich wird mein Joch” , one of the recital’s stand-out moments for the pleasure-filled intimacy between MacLeod and oboist Emmanuel Laporte. The Cantata BWV 203, “Amore, traditore”, is then an entirely different musical beast. Set to simple harpsichord accompaniment, this one is operatic in tone, and with a secular Italian text relating to an amorous deception. It isn’t even indisputably by Bach, given that it survives only via nineteenth-century copies – although musicologists have suggested 1720 (Bach’s Köthen period) as a credible date. Either way, though, here it serves as a delicious final palette-cleanser, MacLeod and harpsichordist Bertrand Cuiller serving up an elegantly sparkling double-act of spry keyboard passagework and subtly operatic vocal drama, complete with some gloriously pizazz-filled flourishes from Cuiller at the aria’s conclusion; and the generous acoustic of the Landgasthof Riehen Grosser Festsall makes its own fine contribution. Great stuff. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

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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

During the more recent past, finds in libraries have made it clear that Johann Sebastian Bach held his Gotha colleague Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel in high regard. But what was it about Stölzel’s music that made Bach and some of his contemporaries so interested in it? As in the text of the famous Brockes-Passion, which was set to music by Telemann and Handel and then later by Stölzel, what is involved here is not a biblical text expanded by arias but a free poetic composition based on the Passion. While the Evangelist, like a live reporter, documents Jesus’s last hours, the “Faithful Soul” and the “Christian Church” act from the perspective of knowledge of how events will turn out. The oratorio is divided into twenty-two “Reflections” concentrating the various perspectives of the three allegorical figures on particular moments in the action. This impressive music beyond doubt will have a very individual effect on each and every hearer – as was also the case with Bach, who some years later once again took the manuscripts from his music library and used the aria of the thirteenth meditation, Dein Kreuz, o Bräutigam meiner Seele, as the basis for his own aria Bekennen will ich seinen Namen (BWV 200). © CPO

The Strauss and Mahler works on this 2024 release are both relatively often recorded, and listeners may have been surprised to see the album show up on classical best-seller lists in the spring of that year. There is the consideration that Rafael Payare and his abundant Afro are landing on many lists of acts to watch, and he shows signs of jelling with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in the Richard Strauss autobiographical tone poem Ein Heldenleben. Hear the superb solo work from violinist Andrew Wan in the third movement, representing Strauss' wife, Pauline de Ahna, but the big news here, and what is probably drawing buyers, is the other work on the album, Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, which receive a revelatory performance from soprano Sonya Yoncheva. It is a distinctly different flavor from the usual Wagnerian sound, adding operatic emotionalism to Um Mitternacht and the gorgeous finale, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. Yoncheva was an inspired choice, whether by Payare or someone else, and the album is worth time and money for her alone. The PentaTone label adds nicely transparent sound from the Maison Symphonique de Montréal to the mix.© James Manheim /TiVo