ArkivMusic

Bach: Cantatas Vol 30 / Suzuki, Sampson, Et Al

BIS

Available as SACD

$21.99

Jan 01, 2006

BACH Cantatas: No. 51; No. 210: Spielet, ihr beseelten Lieder. Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn? ihn, BWV 1127 ? Masaaki Suzuki, cond; Carolyn Sampson (sop); Bach Collegium Japan (period instruments) ? BIS SACD-1471 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 71:17 & )

Volume 30 of Masaaki Suzuki?s highly regarded Bach cantata cycle is devoted mainly to Bach?s ?newest? work, the strophic aria ?Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn? ihn,? discovered in May 2005, and quickly authenticated and assigned the BWV number 1127 (thus, it?s separated from the cantatas, which occupy the first 200-plus spots in the catalog). Suzuki?s is the work?s first complete recording; abridged versions came first from Gardiner on his own Soli Deo Gratia label (12 minutes, combined with several other bits and pieces into a sort of cantate imaginaire ), and then from Koopman (17 minutes, in Volume 20 of his Challenge cantata series). Frankly, despite the beauty of Carolyn Sampson?s performance with Suzuki?s expert ensemble, Gardiner?s is the version of choice, simply because we don?t need to hear the same damn thing performed 12 times in a row over the course of 48 and a half minutes.

That?s what happens in a complete performance. In 1713, to celebrate the 53rd birthday of Bach?s early employer, Duke Wilhelm Ernst, a local town superintendent named Johann Anthon Mylius wrote 12 stanzas, each verse beginning with the German translation of the duke?s motto, ?Omnia deo et nihil sine eo? (?Everything with God and nothing without him?). The second line of each stanza and the following B section would change, but that second line would evolve in an odd way: only the third word would be replaced, and if you align the first letters of each of those third words you spell out the duke?s name. This is the sort of acrostic game that Bach loved, but it?s strange that he was assigned the task of setting the words to music. He was merely the Weimar court organist, and wouldn?t have any responsibility for writing cantatas until his promotion the following year. Perhaps more senior composers, including several in the Mylius family, had turned down the potentially tedious job. Perhaps the ambitious Bach lobbied for the assignment, hoping it would gain him the sort of attention that would result in the promotion he indeed received within a few months. At any rate, Bach merely wrote out the music for the first verse, intending it to be repeated as the text changed. To understand the acrostic, you need to see the entire text, but hearing the whole thing is hardly necessary. Bach provided an attractive, melismatic melody and an appealing instrumental accompaniment, but enough is enough.

To their credit, Suzuki and his elegant players do vary the instrumental bridges somewhat, and Sampson handles the melody with lovely grace, but it?s not enough to sustain interest for more than three quarters of an hour. All are heard to better effect in Cantata No. 51, a performance that floats and twirls, without losing its center of gravity in the weightier sections. For some reason, the aria ?Spielet, ihr beseelten Lieder? from BWV 210 is appended as a bonus track.

The 5.0 surround sound is, as expected from this source, outstanding in its balance and timbral fidelity, except that the important trumpet part in the outer movements of BWV 51 is too recessed, almost offstage. If you?re compulsively collecting the Suzuki series, there?s no reason to pass this up, but if all you want is BWV 1127, in this case there?s no merit to completism, and the Gardiner sampler is a more attractive option.

FANFARE: James Reel

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites / Suzuki

BIS

Available as SACD

$42.99

Aug 01, 2009

Bach Collegium Japan was first noticed internationally for undertaking the huge project of recording the complete church cantatas of J. S. Bach. Although the ensemble's discography consists of predominately vocal works, the participating instrumentalists have attracted acclaim ever since the outset. On the present offering, it is Bach's two great sets of orchestral works that form the programme and the choir of the BCJ is silent. Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki first recorded the Brandenburg Concertos in 2000, but now return to these great works. The new recording took place in the recently completed MUZA Kawasaki Hall, a venue that is highly suitable to an approach focussing on the chamber music qualities of this music.

In four of the concertos Masaaki Suzuki has chosen to replace the traditional cello with the violoncello da spalla - a smaller instrument played horizontally on the shoulder or held against the breast. The instrument has already featured in the BCJ Cantata series, and opens for new possibilities in timbre, for instance in Concerto No. 6, where the violoncello da spalla blends particularly well with the two solo violas and the viola da gambas. Making a new recording also provided the opportunity to record these in many ways multidimensional works in 5.0 Surround Sound, releasing them as hybrid SACDs. This is also the format of the included recordings of the Orchestral Suites, originally released in 2005 to great and universal acclaim.

The German website klassik.com called the 2-CD set 'incredibly perfect Bach!' and named it one of the reference recordings of these oft-recorded works, while the Financial Times (UK) listed it as one of the outstanding classical discs of 2005, remarking that 'Suzuki's traversal of the Bach orchestral suites combine scholarship and style without compromising the music's expressiveness.' In the Brandenburg Concertos and the Suites, Bach explored an Italian and a French genre respectively, and in his inimitable way transcended the boundaries of both. This attractive box at a very advantageous price combines both sets performed by one of the leading Baroque ensembles in high fidelity recordings - not to be missed! Please note: The music on this Hybrid Super Audio CD can be played back in Stereo (CD and SACD) as well as in 5.0 Surround sound (SACD).

Schumann, Beethoven & Wolf: Vocal Works

Haenssler Classic

Available as CD

$20.99

Oct 05, 2018

Benjamin Bruns began his singing career as an alto soloist with the boys' choir in his home city of Hanover. After four years of private singing lessons with Prof. Peter Sefcik, he studied at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Hamburg under the Kammers�ngerin Renate Behle. While still a student, he was offered a permanent contract by the Theater Bremen, a position which allowed him to build up a broadly based repertoire at an early stage. It was followed by a similar contract with the opera house in Cologne. His professional journey then took him via the Dresden State Opera to the Vienna State Opera. His repertoire contains such roles as Belmonte (Die Entf�hrung aus dem Serail), Tamino (Die Zauberfl�te), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Ferrando (Cos� fan tutte), Camille de Rosillon (The Merry Widow), Loge (Das Rheingold), or the Italian Tenor in the Strauss operas Capriccio and Der Rosenkavalier. Since his debut in summer 2012 he sang the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman for five seasons at the Bayreuth Festival. Oratorio and lieder form an important counterweight to Benjamin Bruns's stage work. At the heart of his extensive concert repertoire are the great sacred works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. He has sung with such renowned ensembles as Berliner Philharmonics, the S�chsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonics, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Bach Collegium Japan, the WDR Symphony Orchestra as well as Choir and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome or the Akademie f�r Alte Musik Berlin. Together with pianist Karola Theill he is regularly giving Lied recitals, dedicated especially to the important cycles of Schumann, Schubert and Beethoven. But also songs by Wolf, Britten, Faur�, Szymanowski and Strauss are to be found in his programs.

Vivaldi: Recorder Concertos / Dan Laurin, 1B1

BIS

Available as SACD

$21.99

Feb 12, 2016

The Swedish recorder virtuoso Dan Laurin has demonstrated his remarkable versatility on some thirty recordings for BIS, ranging from a nine-disc set with 17th-century composer Jacob van Eyck's complete Der Fluyten Lust-hof to the recent Rock that Flute, with music for recorder and strings written in 2013 by the Dutch composer Chiel Meijering. During a recording career that stretches over almost 30 years, Laurin keeps returning to one particular set of works, however: the concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Three of the works (the Concertos RV 441, 443 and 444) included on his latest release he has recorded more than once before, with ensembles such as the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, Bach Collegium Japan and Arte dei Suonatori. For his latest 'take' on these favourites Laurin has joined forces with the young and vibrant Norwegian string ensemble 1B1 (shorthand for Ensemble Bjergsted 1). As he explains in his own liner notes for the present disc, he was inspired by his work on transcribing and performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: ‘A close reading of RV441 and RV443–445 reveals great similarities between these works and The Four Seasons: sudden changes of moods, turbulent emotions, burlesque whims mixed with sublime beauty and elegance… My aim here is to explore the recorder concertos with the same freedom and spontaneity that characterize the modern-day approach to the Seasons.’ Laurin’s recording of the Seasons has been called ‘undoubtedly the best transcription to date’ (Diapason) and ‘never hackneyed, but instead invigoratingly fresh and vibrant’ (Clarino), verdicts which can only fuel the expectations concerning this his latest version of the recorder concertos.

Masaaki Suzuki plays Bach Organ Works, Vol. 2

BIS

Available as SACD

$21.99

Feb 03, 2017

Also Available: Masaaki Suzuki plays Bach Organ Works

Before releasing his first disc of Bach’s organ works, Masaaki Suzuki had recorded the composer’s complete sacred cantatas, as well as the large-scale choral works and much of the music for harpsichord. His achievements in these fields obscured the fact that Suzuki originally trained as an organist, and began working as such already at the age of twelve. So when Volume 1 of this series reached reviewers around the world, it was something of a revelation to many: the disc went on to be named Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Diapason d’Or in Diapason and Recording of the Month in Gramophone, which then went on to include it on its list of the ‘50 Greatest Bach Recordings’.

Volume 1 featured the celebrated Schnitger/Hinz organ of Groningen’s Martinikerk in the Netherlands. For this present instalment, Suzuki returned to more familiar ground – the chapel of the Kobe Shoin Women's University where the great majority of his recordings with Bach Collegium Japan have taken place. The chapel houses a French classical organ built in 1983 by Marc Garnier, and on it Suzuki performs a highly symmetrical programme with the large-scale chorale partita BWV 768 at its centre. The work is known as ‘Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig’, although the chorale text that it is structured upon most probably is that of ‘O Jesu, du edle Gabe’. On either side the partita is flanked by an arrangement by Bach of concertos by Vivaldi, and a chorale prelude on ‘Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier’. The disc opens and closes with a Prelude and Fugue, in G major and C major respectively.

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REVIEWS:

Suzuki makes extremely savvy use of his resources; the instrument's almost chamber-music-like clarity and intimacy of the results is most enjoyable. The recorded sound is unusually crisp and clear. Strongly and enthusiastically recommended.

– Fanfare

The life, vitality, affection and fun Suzuki brings to them will ensure they have a lasting place in the annals of Bach organ recordings.

– MusicWeb International

The remarkable harpsichordist/organist/conductor Masaaki Suzuki continues his recordings for BIS with this SACD of organ music of Bach played on the Marc Garnier organ of Shoin Chapel in Kobe, Japan. This is not a large cathedral organ. You won’t hear massive pedal notes, but these are excellent performances, beautifully and naturally recorded.

– Classical CD Review

Bach: Violin Concertos / Eschkenazy, Ogrintchouk, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra

PENTATONE

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

Oct 30, 2012

Bulgarian violinist Vesko Eschkenazy is one of the very good guys of the classical music world and much loved in The Netherlands, from where I am currently writing my reviews. The team of performers brought together for this Pentatone recording is highly promising, with support from leading soloist Tjeerd Top in the Double Concerto, someone I remember from his time as a student at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk who now teaches there, as well as having increasing numbers of distinguished recordings under his belt, including more Bach from BIS.

There is very little to criticise here, and these are all very fine performances. The sound is pretty crisp supporting an historically informed approach with brisk tempi, a discretely balanced harpsichord helping things along and admirable transparency of texture and articulation. Perhaps the orchestral sound could be a little better defined, with the strings behind the soloists sounding a bit generalised even in SACD mode, but this is a minor point. Brisk tempi means we don’t have the same kind of profundity in the beautiful Largo, ma non tanto second movement of the Double Concerto, but we’ve moved on from the kinds of romantic atmosphere beloved of David and Igor Oistrakh. This is a kind of mixture between worlds, with fairly rich vibrato in the solo lines to go along with the early-music flavour of the general approach. Comparing with Monica Huggett and Alison Bury with Ton Koopman on the Erato label shows very similar timings but a far lighter, chamber-music sonority and a reluctance to play with legato lines. Tighter rhythms and a livelier sonic picture can be found on the BIS label, where Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach Collegium Japan make a superb job of these concertos on BIS-CD-961, showing how the orchestra can play a more pro-active role while almost turning the soloists into consort members rather than giving them their more usual prominence.

So much of what will turn you on in such recordings is a question of taste, and to my ears there is nothing which offends in this Pentatone Bach recording. BWV 1043 doesn’t quite bring a tear to the eye as it can do with some versions, but I still like it a great deal. The solo violin concertos BWV 1041 and BWV 1042 move along decently, though the rhythms might have been a bit more bouncy in the outer movements. The first movement of BWV 1041 for instance, has an intensely narrative feel which Suzuki obtains in his BIS recording, but which is a touch soggy here - a sensation which comes from that rather generalised backing to the soloist. Timings are a little longer, but not in any extreme way. I love Eschkenazy’s restraint in the Andante of BWV 1041, and his gorgeously humane solo lines are ultimately the main selling point of this particular set.

The final D minor concerto BWV 1060, the one reconstructed from a C minor concerto for two harpsichords works well in this recording, with Ogrintchouk’s rich oboe tone mixing very nicely with the strings and Eschkenazy’s partnering solo, brought down a little in the balance to combine on an equal footing and keep a realistic balance with the orchestra.

To conclude, this is a highly desirable recording of the Bach violin concertos, but alas won’t become my all-time favourite. I enjoy the period sound and all of the solo playing, but the somewhat anonymous orchestral backing detracts a little from the overall effect. It’s a different prospect, but Masaaki Suzuki’s more inclusive ensemble is more satisfying to my ears, though admittedly fitting less into conventional expectations of the ‘concerto’ format. In the end, there is no real problem with this recording other than that there are so many others jostling for our attention. The SACD aspect is an attraction, but doesn’t solve that mildly beige orchestral tapestry which prevents me from making this a list of purely admiring superlatives.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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