Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)

 

Volume 1

 

Cantatas for the Feast of St. John the Baptist (CD1)

Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe BWV 167; Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam BWV 7; Freue dich, erlöste Schar BWV 30

soloists: Joanne Lunne, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Paul Agnew, Dietrich Henschel

 

Cantatas for the First Sunday after Trinity (CD2)

Die Elenden sollen essen BWV 75; Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot BWV 39; O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 20 

soloists: Gillian Keith, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Paul Agnew, Dietrich Henschel

 

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

(recorded: London, St. Giles Cripplegate)

 

The first issue in the long-awaited series of live recordings, made on the artists’ Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000.  The cantatas were performed on the feast days for which they were written and this series will be the first to reflect those couplings.  Each 2CD set is sumptuously packaged in a beautiful case-bound book, with stunning cover photos by Steve McCurry, detailed programme notes adapted from John Eliot Gardiner’s Pilgrimage Journal, and full sung texts and translations.

 

The works in Volume 1 are perhaps not amongst the most well-known of Bach’s Cantatas, but they show incredible variety - including the monumental Christ unser Herr, the imposing O Ewigkeit, with its anticipation of the sonorities of Beethoven, and the brilliant and ceremonial Freue dich, with its surprising jazzy rhythms in the enchanting gavotte for alto, flute and muted violins.  Almost all have grandiose choral first movements which show off the Monteverdi Choir at their very best.

 

One of the most remarkable celebrations of the new millen-nium was also a commemoration of the genius of JS Bach, 250 years after his death. Starting on Christmas Day 1999, Gardiner, his outstanding Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists and an ever-changing group of soloists travelled for 12 months throughout Europe (with a side trip to the US) and performed all of Bach’s surviving church cantatas on the appropriate Sundays. I remember the feeling of awe – and disbelief – as Gardiner told me his plans in the summer of 1998 but catching up with a couple of the UK-based concerts during the Pilgrimage year my doubts were resoundingly dismissed. This was a gloriously ambitious and, in the end, toweringly successful enterprise. And now, beautifully packaged, come the recordings from that year, containing some of Bach’s most extraordinary and under-valued music. Now’s your chance to start on a really rewarding journey.

Gramophone

 

Monteverdi Productions 2cds SDG101