JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

 

Cantatas Volume 25

 

Cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Easter

Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch BWV 86

Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen BWV 87

In allen meinen Taten BWV 97

Soloists: Katharine Fuge, Robin Tyson, Steve Davislim, Stephan Loges

Recorded: Dresden

 

Cantatas for the Sunday after Ascension Day

Sie werden euch in den Bann tun I BWV 44

Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich BWV 150

Sie werden euch in den Bann tun II BWV 183

Johann Christoph Bach - Fürchte dich nicht

Soloists: Joanne Lunn, Daniel Taylor, Paul Agnew, Panajotis Iconomou

Recorded: Sherborne

 

The Monteverdi Choir, The English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner

 

SDG’s spring 2008 release combines Cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Easter with those written for the Sunday after Ascension Day.  The first set of Cantatas were recorded in Dresden. It was here that Bach had been crowned unopposed keyboard champion in 1717, and also where the first two movements of what we now know as the B minor Mass were first performed in 1733. The opening cantata, BWV 86 Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch is a great example of Bach’s skill to reinforce religious texts and their meanings. The final piece in the programme is BWV 97 In allen meinen Taten, a cantata without liturgical designation first performed in 1734. It uses the haunting Heinrich Isaac hymn tune ‘Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen’ in both its opening and concluding movements.

 

Recorded in Sherborne Abbey, BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich has no specified liturgical designation but is particularly apt in the period between Easter and Ascension. The two Leipzig cantatas Bach wrote for Exaudi share the title Sie werden euch in den Bann tun. BWV 44 was composed as part of Bach’s first Leipzig cycle in 1724 and BSW 183 followed a year later. To balance the performance of BWV 150, the disc ends with Johann Christoph Bach’s five-voiced motet Fürchte dich nicht. This is an uplifting programme recorded in a perfect acoustic setting.

 

“Gardiner’s Bach is in a class of its own for colour, drama and rhetorical subtlety.  His choir and instrumentalists respond with breathtaking virtuosity…” The Daily Telegragh

 

“There is a genuine pilgrim’s humility about this recording that contrasts tellingly with the magnificence of the achievement.  Gardiner has made history.” The Times

 

Monteverdi Productions 2cds SDG144