Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Tolstoy’s War and Peace – those works of art that are truly part of the canon of global culture are few and far apart. In music, one work that holds significance for people all over the world is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and especially its choral finale. Even today, as we are getting ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of its creator, the sheer size and complexity of the symphony is daunting. There are some eyewitness accounts from the first performance, at the Kärntner-Tor-Theater in Vienna on 7th May 1824: we know for instance that Beethoven was on stage himself throughout the performance, but that owing to his deafness he did not notice the audience’s overwhelming enthusiasm. What the Ninth sounded like that evening in Vienna is something we will never know, however – which is why hearing it in a historically informed performance on period instruments is all the more interesting. With impeccable credentials from their 65-album series of Bach’s complete cantatas, and acclaimed recent recordings of Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki now give us their rendering of Beethoven’s last and greatest symphony, joined by a fine quartet of vocal soloists.

Very little is known about the origin of J. S. Bach’s seven Toccatas (BWV?910–916) or of their use. They are believed to have been written before 1717 or the end of Bach’s Weimar period – but it is quite possible that at least some of them were drafted before he arrived there in 1707, at the age of 22. The Toccatas are usually performed on harpsichord or piano – but even though they are ‘manualiter’ (intended to be played by the hands only) and do not call for pedal parts, they are also occasionally heard on the organ. In terms of style they are examples of the so-called stylus phantasticus – ‘the most free and unfettered method of composition’ – and belong to the North German organ tradition of the late 17th century. Each piece consists of several distinct and contrasting sections, interweaving strict counterpoint and fugal passages with freely rhapsodic material, and as such the toccatas differ from the two-movement prelude-and-fugue format which Bach later would put his own, indelible stamp on. With this disc, Masaaki Suzuki takes on some of the earliest of Bach’s extant harpsichord compositions, after having released acclaimed recordings of a wide range of later works, from the two-part Inventions to the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier. However, he also brings his experience in performing the music of Bach’s North German predecessors to bear, for instance Buxtehude (BIS-1809) and Nicolaus Bruhns.

REVIEW:

Since completing his Bach cantata cycle, conductor and keyboardist Masaaki Suzuki has turned to Bach's keyboard music. The results have been consistently satisfying, as one would expect from this great contemporary Bach interpreter, but even Suzuki fans might have wondered what he would do with these six rarely played toccatas. There are more purely dramatic readings of these works, mostly played on piano, but Suzuki is attuned to this music, and his performances are not in the least colorless. Bach's intense Adagios, like that of the Toccata in E minor, BWV 914, and the irregular structures of the music have snap and surprise. Suzuki's 1982 harpsichord, based on an enlarged Ruckers instrument, is an excellent choice for the music, and anyone whose Bach collection is missing these remarkable works can do well with this choice.

-- ALlMusic.com (James Manheim)

On the 52nd disc in his monumental undertaking of recording all the sacred cantatas by J.S. Bach, Masaaki Suzuki includes one of the best-loved cantatas of all, Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140. With the famous chorale as the unifying element, Bach creates a majestic first movement which is followed by a couple of the most beautiful love duets in the history of music, between the Soul and Jesus, here interpreted by the soprano Hana Blažíková and Peter Kooij, bass. Following BWV 140 on the disc is Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt (‘the Lord is my faithful shepherd’), in which an adaptation from 1531 of the famous Psalm 23 provides the text for all five movements. It is thus a late addition, composed in 1731, to the so-called chorale cantatas that Bach composed a number of in 1724-25. The final cantata in this volume was composed for a church service celebrating the inauguration of a new city council, a ‘Ratswahl cantata’. For this unusually festive occasion Bach clearly wished to demonstrate to the Leipzig notables how sacred music was flourishing under his direction and to present himself as a composer. As a result, the opening sinfonia is a brilliant organ concerto movement, while the first chorus is a reworking of material which Bach would return to in the Dona nobis pacem of his Mass in B minor. The ending of the cantata is suitably splendid and festive, with trumpets and timpani joining in the praise ‘unto God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost’ expressed in the closing chorale. As this recording project is nearing completion – three more volumes remain to be released – reviewers worldwide are commending it for its consistently high standards, with the German web site Klassik Heute remarking that Suzuki ‘not even towards the end of his marathon is showing any lack of freshness or breath – one can only wait impatiently for the final discs of this series’.

On 6 of March 2020, Bach Collegium Japan began their long-awaited 30th anniversary tour of Europe with a performance of Bach's St John Passion in Katowice, Poland. The same week Europe was becoming aware of the very stark reality of the threat posed by the new Corona virus, Covid-19. Consequently, as Masaaki Suzuki and his ensemble went on to perform in Dublin and then London, concert halls across Europe were closing down and the remaining tour dates were cancelled. Before making their return to Japan, the BCJ agreed with the Kölner Philharmonie to go ahead with the concert that had been planned, in the form of a live streaming without an audience. This meant that the ensemble had time on their hands, and the idea was born to use it for making a recording.

Having received permission to use the hall of the Philharmonie for the recording, Bach Collegium Japan and BIS jointly decided to go ahead with the idea, and during a few hectic hours arrangements were made for a recording team to come to Cologne. Over the next few days, Suzuki, the BCJ and a team of soloists headed by James Gilchrist as the Evangelist, recorded Bach's rendering of the Passion of Christ, finishing just ahead of complete lockdown. Their efforts are now available as a testimony not only to the drama of Bach's score, but also to the urgency of a week when the world changed.

‘The spread of the virus created an urgency and energy that rendered this a very dramatic performance’, he continues. ‘The music itself has such incredible power of course, and in this situation, it was somehow doubled. Looking back, it was all like a miracle, and even now it seems like a dream. The tension of the whole experience, combined with the drama of the St John Passion, will stay in our minds forever.’ - Masaako Suzuki


REVIEWS:

Here we have a reading that feels as if, deep in the psyche of the performers, they know this is all happening close to the wire. Gilchrist is again on masterly form, risking pinpoint precision for graphic description in a way that makes the experience feel ‘live’ in every respect. Suzuki takes us as co-travellers in a search of faith, not necessarily assuming us all as believers.

– Gramophone (Awards Issue, 2020)

Despite the hurried nature of the production, engineering is top-notch, and even if the bass is more pronounced this time around, there is an ideal blend of analytical clarity and warmth, both on SACD and regular stereo. No single interpretation can capture every aspect of this monumental music. But Suzuki’s latest is his finest, and belongs in the library of anyone who loves this work – urgently recommended.

– Classical CD Review

This is the seventh disc in the Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki’s series of secular cantatas by J. S. Bach. The best known of these cantatas is featured on this installment, the ever popular “Peasant Cantata.” The piece was written in broad dialect, and set to music which was based around folk songs, making it accessible to the greater population rather than the educated elite. The soprano cantata BWV 209 was composed as a musical farewell to one of Bach’s pupils upon his departure from Leipzig. Finally, Amore traitor for bass solo follows the story of a lover who accuses Amor of betrayal and deception. The closing aria is distinct, utilizing both the voice and the harpsichord in virtuosic passages.

To the general public, Masaaki Suzuki is known as the inspired leader of Bach Collegium Japan, currently undertaking a complete cycle of Bach's cantatas for BIS. He has also received much praise for his on-going recordings of the harpsichord music by the same composer. But his début was actually as an organist - he started playing regularly at Sunday services at the age of 12! When going to the Netherlands to study, Suzuki pursued parallel courses, graduating with a soloist's diploma in both organ and harpsichord. The years spent in The Netherlands also explains his familiarity with the musical world of J.P. Sweelinck, and with the traditions of the Dutch Reformed Church with its ties to Calvin and his 'Genevan Psalter'. The attractively varied programme on this disc alternates secular music for the organ with Sweelinck's settings of psalms from the Genevan Psalter. Due to the suspicion with which the Dutch Reformed Church - and Calvin - regarded instrumental music in religious contexts, these settings were not intended to accompany the congregational singing, but were rather played either before or after the service, providing an opportunity for meditation and afterthought. They fill a similar role on this disc, sandwiched as they are between the more extrovert Toccatas and Fantasias, but also testify to the central place these psalms had in Sweelinck's work. As an epitaph put it, it was he 'who put to music David's royal word, And made it to resound in Zion, in Holland it was heard.' The organ chosen by Masaaki Suzuki is a splendid instrument built by Marc Garnier according to the Northern German and Dutch style of the mid-17th century, especially for the use in the services of the Kobe congregation of the Reformed Church of Japan, where the tradition of congregational singing of Calvin's Genevan Psalter is particularly strong.