BACH CANTATAS – Volume 4

 

CD 1

Cantatas for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Ansbach)

[1-7]      Es ist das Heil uns kommen her BWV 9

[9-12]    Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust BWV 170

[13]        Motet: Der Gerechte kommt um

 

CD 2

Cantatas for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Haddington)

[1-11]    Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht BWV 186

[12-18]  Was willst du dich betrüben BWV 107

[19-25]  Es wartet alles auf dich BWV 187

 

The Monteverdi Choir

The English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner

 

Recording locations: Recorded live: Ansbach and Haddington, July & August 2000

 

RECENT PRESS ACCLAIM FOR THE BACH CANTATA SERIES ON SDG

 

 “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 Telegraph

 

“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

 

“This is Bach at a very high level – a match for anything else currently available on disc” – BBC Music Magazine

 

John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists continue on their Bach pilgrimage and head to Ansbach to perform at the prestigious Ansbach Bach Festival.  The programme opens with BWV 9 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her.  This is then followed by the well known chamber cantata BWV 170 Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, expertly sung by internationally renowned counter-tenor, Michael Chance. A highlight is the first alto aria - an aria of pure enchantment, which tells, through rich and passionate music, that “pleasant rest” can be attained only though union with heaven. The programme ends with the very moving funeral motet Der Gerechte kommt um, attributed to Bach, an incredibly beautiful five-voiced Latin motet composed by Johann Kuhnau. The magnificence of this motet made this very popular with both the choir and orchestra thereby resulting in it being used as a regular encore on the Bach Cantata pilgrimage.

 

Thirty miles east from the hustle and bustle of a busy Edinburgh hosting its world famous festival, we join John Eliot and the Monteverdi forces in the collegiate church of St. Mary’s situated in the modest, tranquil market town of Haddington, Scotland. BWV 186 Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, comprises eleven movements and is structured in two parts.  A movement that stands out is the glorious duet for soprano and alto (No.10), in which the crucial injunction ‘Sei, seele, getreu!’ (‘O soul, be true!’) is reserved until the last two bars.  We then hear BWV 107 Was willst du dich betrüben, a chorale cantata set per omnes versus, that is, with all the verses of a hymn set unaltered.  Bach here cleverly overcomes the limitations of being confined to a rigidly structured hymn without monotony or repetitiveness through the usual devices of changing the voice type in the arias, the key and the metre.  The final chorale, BWV 187 Es wartet alles auf dich is again structured in two parts and comprises of music that is both gentle and seductively beautiful.  Bach clearly supports this belief by parodying the music of this cantata a decade later in his G minor Missa (BWV 235).

 

Soli Deo Gloria 2cds SDG156