If Bach had written only the Mass in B minor, he would be considered the leading composer of sacred music in the Baroque period. Composed between 1733 and 1749, on the eve of his death, this Great Mass is a musical testament for posterity: the most accomplished synthesis of the aesthetics that Bach mastered to perfection, but also an anthology of his sacred work, with it's perfectly mastered architecture. John Eliot Gardiner delivers a sensitive reading of this pinnacle of Western music, which he has frequented for half a century, with irresistible energy and compelling beauty. The Monteverdi Choir, undoubtedly the best choir in the world, delivers an extraordinary musical performance. This exceptional moment, filmed in the Chapelle Royale at the Château de Versailles, sumptuously captures the majesty of this masterpiece of sacred art.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner presents a long-awaited, dazzling and insightful recording of the Violin Concertos with leader and soloist, Kati Debretzeni. Debretzeni also presents her own arrangement and world-premiere recording of the harpsichord concerto BWV1053, published by Fountayne Editions."Bach's violin concertos reveal an ebullient sense of invention and rhythmic exuberance in their dance-based outer movements and a hushed intimacy in the sublime slow movements. It is rather as if one is overhearing a passionate conversation between friends. Yet to maintain the conversation's flow the soloist needs not just to master the different technical demands of each concerto and to capture moods that range from the playful to the profound, but also to locate the spirit of each individual movement and, as a result, to touch your soul. To me that is exactly how it felt when we recorded these four miraculous concertos with Kati Debretzeni and members of the EBS last December - with everyone sharing a palpable delight in the music-making." John Eliot Gardiner

Sir John Eliot Gardiner's personal curation of Easter Choral music inspired by his family's annual Easter Play at his home in Springhead, Dorset. A companion to the Monteverdi Choir's 1998 recording Once as I remember, which told the story of the Springhead Christmas Play. Structured around a series of tableaux, narrating through a combination of the different Gospel accounts, it is a dramatic retelling of the Resurrection story, employing disparate musical styles and frequent shifts of focus and perspective, all held together by the creative vision of a Dorset mother and her son. He writes: "This personal selection of music for Easter from the 11th to the 20th centuries tells the story of the Resurrection and Christ's appearances to his disciples. It is based on my experience of compiling and directing the music for a mimed Easter play, performed in village churches in Dorset every year between 1963 and 1984, the brainchild of my mother, Marabel Gardiner, to whose memory this recording is dedicated."

Monteverdi’s great opera is a celebration of unwavering devotion, conveyed in some of the composer’s most poignant, heart-breaking music. After two brutal decades of war, the weary Ulysses is washed up on the rocky shore of his home island of Ithaca. There, he discovers the hordes of depraved admirers who have beseiged his faithful wife Penelope in his 20-year absence – and launches into battle to win back her love. Monteverdi’s opera is a celebration of unwavering devotion, conveyed in some of the composer’s most poignant, heartbreaking music. John Eliot Gardiner leads an exemplary cast of world-class singers alongside the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in this live recording from The National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Poland – part of their critically acclaimed Monteverdi 450 tour in 2017.

-----

REVIEWS:

Faced with lots of recitative and practically no arias, singers and players abandon themselves to intense arioso, jazzy cross-rhythms between poetry and continuo, and take-no-prisoners dissonances. Furio Zanasi, Lucile Richardot, and Hana Blažiková bring a depth of acting almost without rival.

– BBC Music Magazine

Recitatives flicker and spark with detail. Instrumental textures are spare and speeds swift, and there’s a welcome sense of narrative drive. Text is king, but it’s the rhetoric of the English Baroque Soloists that really counts. Zanasi is a smooth, patrician Uliss. There are more classically beautiful accounts of Il ritorno d’Ulisse available, but perhaps none with quite so much life.

– Gramophone

This is a disc of pure delight.

This brilliant release features a live recording of the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique led by Sir John Elliot Gardiner performing Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 and Brahms’ Serenade No. 2 in A Major. The recorded concert took place in November 2016 inside the stunning acoustics of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 was written mainly in September 1816 and was completed on October 3 of that same year just six months after the completion of his prior symphony. In character, the writing is often said to resemble Mozart; Schubert was infatuated with the composer at the time he composed it. Brahms’ second Serenade was written in 1859 and dedicated to Clara Schumann. The five movement work is scored for chamber orchestra, including double woodwinds but omitting violins, trumpets, trombones and percussion.

-----

REVIEW:

In matters of colour and timing, the playing of this early-Romantic repertoire has undergone its own revolution in the past 30 years. Under Goodman and Mackerras, even Minkowski, the Minuet of Schubert’s Fifth is neat but plain by comparison with Gardiner. Every phrase of the Andante is weighted and cherished. For its combination of tenderness, gravity and springtime joys, the performance may be set alongside Klemperer’s Philharmonia (with a first flute, Marlen Root, who has nothing to fear by comparison with Gareth Morris). The conclusion is quickly faded, but applause is retained after the Brahms. It’s a disc of pure delight.

– Gramophone

The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists celebrate Christmas with a mixed programme of J.S. Bach’s sacred choral works. As we approach the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Church, these works transport listeners to 18th-century Leipzig for a traditional Christmas celebration. The programme moves from the intimacy of “Süßer Trost” to the vast celebration of joy that is Bach's Magnificat. The Bach at Christmas project is dedicated to the memory of philanthropist and patron of the Monteverdi choir, Sir Ralph Kohn. The concerts from which these recordings were taken took place at the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, in December of 2016.

This stunning new live recording of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (Matthauspassion BWV 244) was recorded in Pisa Cathedral during the Anima Mundi Festival as part of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra’s 2016 tour. Conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the brilliant cast includes James Gilchrist as the Evangelist and Stephan Loges as Jesus. The Trinity Boys Choir adds an exciting color to this recording as well. The Monteverdi Choir was founded by Sir John Eliot Gardner in 1964. The ensemble’s first performance was the Monteverdi Vespers in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The group has become known worldwide for their stylistic conviction and their ability to perform an extensive repertoire, from Renaissance motets to Classical music of the Twentieth Century.

-----

REVIEW:

Musically this is a very fine performance. The choir are excellent, of course, with a solid but clear and intimate sound even in the larger choruses, no end of expressive means in the chorales, and a thrilling quickness in the crowd choruses. Gardiner asks for a lot of quiet singing from them and they execute it with a superbly controlled beauty.

The orchestra is as skilled and musical as you like in their obbligatos, and exquisitely responsive in Gardiner's subtle shapings.

The experienced Evangelist of James Gilchrist and Christus of Stephan Loges are not to be faulted, and none of the nine young aria soloists is a weak link; each one lives up to their moment in the drama.

All of these things you will find in many other Matthews, but you will rarely find the same careful relishing of the German text. What really makes this one special, however, is its emotional integrity, coming not from affected theatricality but from a pervading sense of profound sadness. This recording is one of Gardiner's finest achievements.

– Gramophone

One of the 20th century’s great conductors, Leopold Stokowski was also a prolific transcriber of music for the symphony orchestra, creating a unique repertoire by bringing masterpieces to the concert hall that were often unfamiliar to audiences of the time. José Serebrier was Stokowski’s associate conductor in New York, and drawing on memories of his special quality of orchestral sound has revived and revised the best of these sumptuous arrangements. These include a GRAMMY nominated Mussorgsky recording and Stokowski’s signature piece, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, immortalized as part of the soundtrack to Walt Disney’s film Fantasia.

-----

REVIEW:

Anyone who doubts the sustained power of Stokowski’s most famous transcription, Bach’s mighty Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, should experience Serebrier’s enthralling performance.

– Fanfare

Oct. 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique’s founding. 20 years after their acclaimed Beethoven Symphony recordings for DG, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the orchestra continue to revisit this repertoire. The Second’s life-affirming energy is at times romantically tender and at other times ferociously determined. Beethoven’s adventurous spirit can be heard in the Eighth, which is buoyant and energetic with a spirit of wit and playfulness. The album’s 28 pg. booklet contains original notes by BBC presenter and music journalist Stephen Johnson.

Nearly twenty years after their acclaimed Beethoven Symphonies recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique returned to this repertoire for the first time last year, in a tour that took them to London, Philadelphia, Washington and New York. The concert in Carnegie Hall was broadcast live by WQXR, who kindly agreed to make the recording available to us to release on our label.

Sir John Eliot’s Gardiner’s reading of these familiar pieces highlights their revolutionary origin. Performing on period instruments, the ORR brings light, clarity and brisk energy, as well as a warm and genuinely thrilling sound.

The album contains a 36 pages booklet with original notes by BBC presenter and music journalist Stephen Johnson.

"The Allegretto was sinuous and haunting, the finale joyously visceral. And from fate’s knock at the onset of the Fifth Symphony, Mr. Gardiner wrought Beethoven fresh and strange, with gutsy, brash and rasping instrumental voices united in triumph." – The New York Times

JOHANN CHRISTOPH BACH Herr, werde dich und sei mir gnädig. Mit Weinen hebt sich’s an. Wie bist du den, o Gott. Der Gerechte, ob er gleich zu zeitlich stirbt. Ach, dass ich Wassers g’nug hätte. Fürchte dich nicht. Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben. Meine Freundin, di bist schön • John Eliot Gardiner (cond); Julia Doyle, Katharine Fuge (sop); Clare Wilkinson (mez); Nicholas Mulroy (ct); Jaes Gilchrist, Jeremy Budd (ten); Matthew Brook, Peter Harvey (bs); English Baroque Soloists (period instruments) • SOLI DEO GLORIA SDG 715 (78:11 Text and Translation)


If you have ever wondered what happened in German music between Heinrich Schütz and J. S. Bach, Bach would have had an answer for you. Most likely he would have mentioned several of his illustrious forebears, and most certainly he would have named his older first cousin once removed, Johann Christoph Bach (1642–1703), whom he identified as “a profound composer.” That judgment was seconded by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who described Johann Christoph as a “great and expressive” composer. Both father and son performed the elder Bach’s music in the course of their respective duties. The great Johann Christoph—not to be confused with Sebastian’s like-named older brother—was born in Arnstadt and trained by his father, Heinrich Bach (1615–92). His younger brother, Johann Michael (1648–94), also an important composer, later became Sebastian’s first father-in-law. His first position (1663) was as organist in Arnstadt, but two years later he was appointed organist at St. George’s Church in Eisenach. He eventually became a chamber musician at the ducal court there and held both positions for the remainder of his life. Little is known of Johann Christoph’s private life other than his contentious relationship with his employers and his impoverishment at the end of his life. In Eisenach he often worked with his first cousin, Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645–95), a town musician and father of the younger Johann Christoph (1671–1721) and Johann Sebastian. When Sebastian became orphaned in 1695 a logical move might have been to place him in the custody of the established cousin in Eisenach, but the latter’s financial condition probably dictated the move to his 24-year-old brother’s home in Ohrdruf. Sebastian’s musical training came primarily from his brother. But he was not a distinguished composer. Who can doubt that Sebastian’s inspiration had some roots in his musical memories of Eisenach?


Johann Christoph, of course, composed primarily for the church. Undoubtedly much of his music is lost. The extant catalog is small: two arias, two Konzerte (cantatas), two laments, two dialogues, and eight motets—the most famous of which, Ich lasse dich nicht , is variously attributed to him and to Sebastian. There are 44 organ chorales with preludes and an organ prelude and fugue. A few harpsichord pieces were probably written for the court. His style was progressive for its time and place, but listeners anticipating an appendix to Johann Sebastian’s legacy must be mindful that influence does not flow backward. Vocal parts are relatively undemanding, owing to the level of competence of the available choristers, but the instrumental accompaniments can be quite elaborate. One may find that Johann Christoph’s music has a logic of its own, and also that the younger Bachs were judicious in their assessment of it.


The disc title, Welt, gute Nacht , is not the title of any of the works in the program. It is the last line of the first verse of the valedictory aria, Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben . Most of these eight compositions are solemn—end-of-life arias, laments, funeral motets, and a penitential psalm—but the program has a 24-minute happy ending. Meine Freundin , with a text derived from The Song of Songs , was written for a wedding celebration and shows a lighter side of Johann Christoph’s dour countenance.


Johann Christoph has an ideal champion in John Eliot Gardiner. Gardiner, who, unlike the Bachs, is not plagued by inexpert choral singers, leads an octet of soloists in the choral parts (including the two arias) and a reduced English Baroque Soloists in the larger works. The two laments are beautifully sung as solos by Matthew Brook and Clare Wilkinson. Gardiner finds both expressiveness and profundity in his readings.


The prevailing culture throughout the lifespans of the seven generations of musical Bachs placed a much higher value on newly composed music than on music of the past. Were he to look in on us today, I suspect that J. S. Bach would be amazed and probably gratified to find dozens upon dozens of recordings of the B-Minor Mass and Brandenburg Concerto recordings beyond count. But he would be dismayed, I’m sure, by the sparse representation of Johann Christoph Bach on disc. This is a splendid release, and an important one, highly recommended.


Also recommended, Die Familie Bach vor Johann Sebastian (Archiv 419 253-2, two CDs), performed by Reinhard Gobel, Rheinische Kantorei, and Musica Antiqua Köln—music of Johann Michael, Georg Christoph (1642–97), Johann Christoph, and Heinrich Bach.


FANFARE: George Chien

This album made the headlines in 2006 as the UK’s first classical “on the night” recording. CDs were made during the second part of the concert for the audience to take home after the concert. This is the first time this CD has been commercially released.

Symphonies 39 & 41 are among the last composed by Mozart. They use the full eighteenth-century orchestra, complete with trumpets and timpani.

Symphony 39 (K543) shows Mozart at his most exalted in the orchestral passages, while some passages remain intimate and touching, with more delicate themes. The Minuet features the orchestra’s guest artists, the clarinets, in a waltz-like Trio.

The “Jupiter”, Mozart’s final symphony (no 41, K551), belongs to a sequence of grand ceremonial works in C major. Typically for Mozart it juxtaposes a number of different contrasting musical characters and ideas, from the formal and aristocratic to the heartfelt and soulful.

In the finale, the composer’s compositional virtuosity is on display. Through the whole runs an extraordinary spirit, a mixture of intellectual excitement, the feeling of a grand design, and a sense of fun.

SDG is delighted to release Volume 12 - Cantatas for the twenty-second and twenty-third Sundays after trinity.

John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists performed both of these programmes in England: at All Saints church in Tooting and at Winchester Cathedral, in November 2000.

The soloists include James Gilchrist, Peter Harvey and Joanne Lunn.

The highlight of this album is Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (“Sleepers, wake”) - one of Bach’s best known cantatas, and one that has long been part of the Monteverdi Choir’s repertoire. It is described as “a cantata without weaknesses, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order”.

Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht (“I, wretched man, I slave to sin”) is Bach’s only cantata for solo tenor still in existence. It is sung movingly by James Gilchrist.

Of three cantatas on the parable of the unjust steward (BWV 55, 89, 115), Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit (“Prepare yourself, my soul”) is considered to stand out for its subtle instrumental writing and spellbinding arias, which evoke the yearning of the soul for divine mercy.

The recording in Tooting (CD1) is the only one in the whole series that wasn’t recorded live: the original concert took place in Eton chapel, right under the Heathrow airport flight path, so we had to try and recreate the same conditions in a quieter place.

This album is packaged with a separate index sheet of the Cantata series.

English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner. (Originally released on Erato 4509-91800-2 [2 CDs] recorded January, 1983)

The English Baroque Soloists are a virtuoso period band, wonderfully well recorded here, and Gardiner elicits readings from them that are masterfully shaped and inflected, full of resilience, energy, and life. These are foot-tapping performances, as earthy as they are courtly, and unmatched in their richness and piquancy of sound. What is notable, in addition to the wonderful pointing of rhythm, is the real expressiveness of the playing. - Ted Libbey

John Eliot Gardiner's fresh take on Brahms' Symphony No. 2 is only partially about performing forces. The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique's period-based proportions yield impressive ensemble clarity along with bracing instrumental timbres, most notably in the strings, which play sans vibrato. This has a curious effect in Brahms--compared to the accustomed buttery warmth produced by the Vienna Philharmonic or the Chicago Symphony, Gardiner's spare-sounding string band lends a certain curtness to the musical expression, especially so at the start of the slow movement, which here sounds more baroque than romantic. But this quality fits Gardiner's interpretation, with its moderately quick tempos and crisp phrasing. The orchestra's lively playing, most notably the woodwinds, makes Brahms' harmonies sing quite beautifully and makes you listen to the music with fresh ears. Only the finale breaks the spell--Gardiner's rather deliberate coda keeps the grand conclusion firmly on the ground.

The coupled Schubert choral works, of interest primarily to choral music aficionados, really don't add much to the program, although they do set the stage for Brahms' Alto Rhapsody, the opening of which interestingly has stylistic similarities to the Schubert pieces. Nathalie Stutzmann's dark, true-alto voice rings powerfully in the Rhapsody, while the Monteverdi Choir gives compelling performances throughout. Completing the package is recorded sound that's clear and detailed (with a slight emphasis on the high frequencies), fully complementing Gardiner's interpretive approach (especially that decidedly different Brahms Second!). A most welcome release.

--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Some hallmark performances in this array of Trinity cantatas

As ever, John Eliot Gardiner’s magnificent Bach Cantatas series eschews the big-boned, monumental approach to this composer of yesteryear. Here, in a really tremendous volume, is spiritual reflection paced to the fast-moving ebb and flow of life today. As such, it always feels relevant and vital. And much of that stems from the fact that Gardiner’s players and singers sound so utterly involved through every bar. Even if it doesn’t approach the polish of some versions, and one or two of the singers are not quite of the vocal quality of rivals, still they perform as if in response to some higher call. Among conductors, of course, few rank higher than Gardiner. And, as ever, the tempi and textures are warm and above all channel a sense of the humane. Woven into the whole are countless magical virtuoso moments – these may be great shared experiences, but the space for individual expression constantly keeps it personal. When the big collective moments do arrive, as at the end of Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, they do so with great force. And, as the marvellous Monteverdi Choir beseech Jesus for mercy, for the strength to resist temptation, there is no question as to the cumulative power of these readings.

-- Gramophone [5/2008]

This indispensable series goes from strength to strength.

This is the release in the series for which I’ve been waiting most keenly. That’s because it includes a concert which I was lucky enough to attend. In July 2000, as part of the Cheltenham Music Festival, Sir John led his pilgrims into the magnificent medieval surroundings of Tewkesbury Abbey for a late Sunday afternoon concert. I was among the capacity audience, accompanied by two Bach-loving friends, both of whom have since died. I’m sure they would have shared my pleasure at reliving the event through the medium of CD. I had completely forgotten that the previous evening Gardiner and the Pilgrims had been at London’s Royal Albert Hall when they’d performed two of these cantatas as part of a Henry Wood Promenade Concert. Sir John comments how pleased they all were to get back to the more intimate feel of a Pilgrimage concert.

Proceedings at Tewkesbury began with BWV 24. The cantata opens with the words “Ein ungefärbt Gemüte von deutscher Treu und Güte macht uns vor Gott und Menschen schön.” (“An unstained mind of German truth and goodness makes us beloved of God and men.”) There’s a calm assurance and confidence about the music to which Bach sets this very Lutheran sentiment. The stately aria that results is sung with great poise by Nathalie Stutzmann. Later there’s a vigorous chorus, which is far from easy to pull off – and which gave even Gardiner’s forces a little trouble in rehearsal, we are told. In performance, however, it’s completely successful. The other especially persuasive feature of this cantata is the plangent tone that Paul Agnew brings to the tenor aria, ‘Treu und Wahrheit sei der Grund’. His approach is ideally suited to the music.

Alfred Dürr states that when Bach first performed BWV 24 in Leipzig he had, on the preceding three Sundays, given the Leipzig congregations much longer and more elaborate bi-partite cantatas, BWV 75, 76 and 21. In order to keep his offering for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity in similar scale he performed two cantatas that day, one either side of the sermon, and the second cantata was BWV 185. This is a much earlier piece but one that contains a good deal of admirable music. It opens with a lovely soprano/tenor duet and here we find the voices of Magdalena Kožená and Paul Agnew intertwining languorously. Miss Kožená’s tone is particularly melting. Added interest comes from Bach’s use of a clarion, which, as Gardiner puts it, we hear “hovering above the two amorous vocal lines.” Further into the cantata there’s another treat in the form of the alto aria ‘Sei bemüht in dieser Zeit’. It’s an enchanting aria and, as Gardiner says, Nathalie Stutzmann’s “sumptuous yet transparent contralto seemed just right for this aria, especially in the glowing afternoon light of Tewkesbury Abbey.” Later comes a bass aria but I’m afraid I don’t find Bach’s music all that appealing on this occasion, nor is the timbre of Nicholas Teste’s voice as ingratiating as I’d like.

The final Tewkesbury offering is BWV 177. This cantata is based on a hymn and Bach, setting five verses, eschews recitative. There’s a substantial and elaborate opening chorus in which the Monteverdi Choir excels. In the alto aria Nathalie Stutzmann once again produces beautifully communicative singing. Her aria is sparsely accompanied by continuo only. The soprano aria is a more elaborate affair with a very decorated vocal line. Magdalena Kožená gives it a fine, fluent reading. The remaining aria is for tenor and it’s mainly jaunty in tone. Agnew sings excellently. Of special note in this aria is the chattering double obbligato, provided by a violin and a bucolic, soft-grained bassoon.

The next stop on the journey was a city with very direct Bachian links. Mühlhausen was the city where Bach worked for just a year (1708-08) before moving on to Weimar, though he appears to have maintained cordial links with Mühlhausen after his departure.

Only two cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity have come down to us. This relative paucity gave Gardiner the chance to perform at Mühlhausen two highly appropriate cantatas, written for the city but for other occasions. BWV 71 was composed for the inauguration of the town council in February 1708. The splendour of this civic occasion prompted Bach to write for pretty extravagant forces. Four solo voices (SATB) are augmented by an optional ripieno choir (also SATB) and no less than four separate instrumental choirs are specified: three trumpets and drums; two recorders and cello; two oboes and bassoon; two violins, viola, and violone. However, Gardiner points out that the cantata has its weaknesses and he says that it is “somewhat disjointed and short-winded”, a verdict from which it is hard to dissent. However, he very rightly singles out for praise the penultimate movement, the chorus ‘Du wollest dem Feinde” The gentle, expressive music in this movement is a cut above the rest of the score. As Dürr comments, it’s “the most original and captivating movement in the whole cantata.” It’s splendidly done here.

Gardiner fields a strong team of soloists, who blend together most effectively in the third movement, a quartet. This concert introduces us to a soloist not previously encountered on the Pilgrimage, the South African tenor Kobie van Rensburg. His voice was completely new to me but he makes a most favourable impression with a strong, ringing tone and clear articulation and diction. This is heard to good advantage almost immediately in the aria ‘Ich bin nun achtzig Jahr’.

The next cantata, BWV 131 is a much stronger and more rounded composition. Perhaps it helps that Bach had a much more unified text to set in the shape of verses from Psalm 130. The opening chorus is quite superb. The keenly felt slow music with which it opens is most eloquently performed and no less impressive is the account of the lighter, more rapid music that follows. Gardiner dovetails the contrasting textures of solo quartet and main choir most effectively. The fugal chorus, ‘Ich harre des Herrn’, is marvellously balanced, both in musical and emotional terms. I enjoyed van Rensburg’s shaping of the long expressive lines in the following aria, ‘Meine Seele wartet auf den Herrn von einer’ and the impressive chorus with which the cantata ends is splendidly articulated by all concerned. This whole performance is a tremendous success.

Then we hear two later cantatas, specifically written for the Fifth Sunday, where the Gospel for the day tells the story of Peter fishing all night without success yet, letting out his net one more time at the command of Jesus, he then hauls in a munificent catch (Luke, chapter 5 vv1-11). First comes BWV 93. The libretto avoids a specific reference to the gospel story until the tenor recitative (movement V). The extended opening chorus incorporates important contributions from the quartet of soloists. Kobie van Rensburg again attracts favourable attention in his aria ‘Man halte nur ein wenig stille’ (‘Remain silent for a while’). This aria is well described by Gardiner as an “elegant passepied” and I appreciate the touch of steel at the heart of van Rensburg’s plangent voice. Later, he has an important recitative and it’s good to find that he can bring a sense of drama and some effective word painting to a passage such as this. I also liked very much the alert, bright singing of Joanne Lunn in her aria ‘Ich will auf den Herren schaun’, where the oboe obbligato is an equal source of delight.

Finally comes BWV 88. This opens with a pretty unusual bass aria. At the start the libretto refers to God sending fishermen (“Behold, I will send out many fishermen, says the Lord”) and Bach responds with a wonderfully easeful, lilting barcarolle in 6/8 time. The grateful, elevated vocal line is meat and drink to Peter Harvey, who delivers it quite beautifully. Abruptly the mood changes (“And thereafter I will send out many hunters”), the pace quickens appreciably and Bach deploys, in Gardiner’s words, “a rampaging pair of high horns” in the orchestra. Harvey is impressive throughout.

There’s another chance to enjoy van Rensburg’s singing in this cantata. He makes a very good job of the aria ‘Nein, Gott ist allezeit geflissen’ (No, God is always eager that we be on the right path’) Later Joanne Lunn and William Towers blend most effectively in their duet. Gardiner tells us that the audience for this concert was “attentive and rapturous even by the standards of this pilgrimage” and no wonder, for on the evidence of these recordings the good people of Mühlhausen were treated to a splendid and most stimulating concert.

Yet again the standard of performance in these recordings is extremely high and the music is wonderful. Bach’s stream of invention and inspiration is a never-ending source of wonder. I’m also filled with renewed admiration for Sir John, who seems to have an inexhaustible capacity to say something fresh about this marvellous music each time he picks up either his pen to write the notes or his baton to direct the performances. This indispensable series goes from strength to strength.

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

Another splendid disc in this important series.

This disc contains the very final concert, the fifty-ninth, of Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. This was the last of three concerts given in New York to conclude the Pilgrimage. We’ve already had one disc devoted to Christmas cantatas, performed on Christmas Day itself (see review), and its companion, recorded at a concert given just two days later (see review). Now here’s the final Christmas instalment.

It must have been quite an emotional occasion for the Pilgrims, knowing that this was the end of their journey – a journey of discovery and celebration. Gardiner makes that clear in his notes, but even if he had not done so anyone who has followed the series to date would have guessed as much from the comments that various performers have made in their own recollections, printed in earlier booklets.

The concert begins not with a cantata but with a motet, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225.This was a most intelligent piece of programming since the concert was to close with the cantata that bears the same title. The motet begins with infectious joyfulness – Sir John refers to the “joyous, spirited singing” – but the Monteverdi Choir is no less alive to more reflective moments in Bach’s piece. This means that the central section is marvellously poised. In the outer stretches of the work, however, they provide singing of superb clarity, full tone and rhythmic vivaciousness.

BWV 152 contrasts very strongly with the motet. This is a work from Bach’s Weimar period and it is scored for very modest forces indeed. A solo soprano and a bass are accompanied by just six instrumentalists – recorder, oboe, viola d’amore, viola da gamba and a continuo, comprising cello and organ. Alfred Dürr suggests, in his definitive study of the cantatas, that perhaps, after the other musical demands made on the Weimar musicians during the Christmas period, Bach had very limited forces available to him and made a virtue of necessity in his scoring. The result is a wonderfully intimate creation, which is sung delightfully by Gillian Keith and Peter Harvey.

Harvey, one of the rocks of this whole series, is in fine voice. Gillian Keith also excels, especially in the sublime aria, ‘Stein der über alle Schätze’. Here the recorder and viola d’amore intertwine sinuously in support of her touching singing. This is a wonderfully delicate movement and the fragility of the music contrasts pointedly with the much more emphatic bass recitatives that are placed on either side of it. There’s no concluding chorale. Instead the cantata ends with a dialogue between the Soul (soprano) and Jesus (bass), which is very well done here. This wasn’t a cantata with which I was very familiar so I’m particularly delighted to find it in such an excellent performance.

Next we hear BWV 122, a Leipzig piece. This is based on an old hymn, dating from 1597, which would have been familiar to the Leipzig congregations. Peter Harvey has a challenging aria, which, predictably, he puts across very well. I like Katharine Fuge’s lovely, pure tone in the following recitative and then she and James Gilchrist combine most effectively in a terzetto, in which they’re joined by the altos of the choir, who sing the chorale melody beneath the soloists’ florid lines.

The first two cantatas have been predominantly reflective in tone. Now, however, the decks are cleared for some serious rejoicing, beginning with BWV 28. Against a sprightly accompaniment Joanne Lunn opens the proceedings with what Dürr calls a “joyful, dance-like song of thanksgiving.” This is an engaging, smiling piece of singing; not only is Miss Lunn characterful but she’s also technically assured. There follows a magnificent chorus, which finds the Monteverdi Choir on stunning, incisive form. Gilchrist is at his most expressive in the recitative ‘Gott ist ein Quell’ and then he and Daniel Taylor are terrific in the sprightly duet ‘Gott hat uns im heurigen Jahre gesegnet.’

But you sense that the whole concert has been building up to the performance of BWV 190. This cantata has come down to us with only a fragmentary orchestral score and Gardiner and his colleagues engaged in some well-informed reconstruction. For example, timpani and a trio of trumpets have been added to the opening chorus, to thrilling effect and, as we shall see, there’s an even more inspired piece of re-scoring later on.

The piece opens with a chorus that is nothing less than an outbreak of unbridled rejoicing. On this occasion the music is invested with the sort of vital, virtuoso singing and playing for which Gardiner has become renowned. He and his performers convey a life-enhancing optimism. One senses that everyone was on their toes to provide the Big Finish to the Pilgrimage. The cantus firmus interjections from Luther’s German Te Deum are especially fervent but then so is the whole of this chorus; it’s a really spine tingling performance.

Later comes a duet for tenor and bass soloists, ‘Jesus soll mein alles sein.’ In an inspired piece of scoring, Gardiner allots the obbligato to the viola d’amore. The obbligato part consists largely of “chains of wistful, gestural arabesques bouncing off a silent main beat” (Gardiner). The effect is quite ravishing. One might have feared that the delicate, husky sound of the viola d’amore would be swamped by the singers. However, without holding back, Gilchrist and Harvey sing with such exemplary control and taste that everything fits together beautifully. Gardiner chose to repeat this movement as the second and final encore at the end of the concert and it’s a nice thought that this was the last music to be heard during the Pilgrimage. The thought is all the more poignant since the violist, Katherine McGillvray, died last year aged just thirty-six; the CD is dedicated to her memory.

After this luminous duet comes a tenor recitative. It was the final solo of the concert and, therefore, of the Pilgrimage and it’s fitting that this should have been entrusted to James Gilchrist, since he’s been another mainstay of the whole enterprise. He produces a marvellously weighted, nuanced piece of singing, which typifies the skill and perception of so many of his contributions to the Pilgrimage.

All that remains is the final, affirmative chorale, which, as performed here, seems to be a summation and a salute to the genius of Bach. This performance anticipated by a few hours the New Year for which the cantata was written. As such, it looked back on a year of homage to Bach and celebration of his music in the 250th anniversary year of his death. But the performance also seems to look forward with confidence, perhaps because Gardiner and his team felt inspired and refreshed by their shared and individual experiences during the course of the Pilgrimage. For the Pilgrims this marked journey’s end. For those of us who are reliving their journey through the medium of CD we have many more volumes in prospect. The next instalment is keenly awaited but for now this splendid disc will sustain us.

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

BACH Cantatas: No. 4; 1,3,4,5 No. 31; 1,4,5 No. 66; 3,4,5 No. 6; 2,3,4,5 No. 134; 3,4 No. 145 2,4,5 • John Eliot Gardiner, cond; Gillian Keith (sop); 1 Angharad Gruffydd Jones (sop); 2 Daniel Taylor (ct); 3 James Gilchrist (ten); 4 Stephen Varcoe (bs); 5 Monteverdi Ch; English Baroque Soloists (period instruments) • SOLI DEO GLORIA 128 (2 CDs: 120:39 Text and Translation)


This new installment, Volume 22, from Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage is devoted to the music of Easter Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Only two cantatas (plus the Easter Oratorio ) for each of these important festivals are extant. Surprisingly, only one of these six cantatas (No. 6) was conceived and composed in Leipzig. Three (Nos. 66, 134, and 145) were derived from secular cantatas written in Cöthen. No. 31 was brought to Leipzig from Weimar, and No. 4 from Mühlhausen.


From the first, Cantata No. 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden , effectively a set of chorale variations on Luther’s hymn, has been considered a special work, and, truth to tell, it is, if not my absolute favorite among the cantatas, certainly one of my top handful. Apparently it has a similar hold on Gardiner, who reckons that over his career he has performed it more often than any of the other cantatas. Gardiner assigns all of the vocal parts to the chorus, common practice a generation (or so) ago, but contrary to the current understanding that at least the duets and arias (verses 2, 3, 5, and 6) were intended for soloists. LPs by Shaw (RCA) and Prohaska (Bach Guild) were recorded without soloists, as was Gardiner’s first recording of this cantata (for Erato), now 25 years old. Richter (Archiv) modified that pattern by having Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing the bass aria. Chorus and soloists are combined in the integral sets by Harnoncourt, Rilling, Koopman, and Suzuki. One-to-a-part advocates Parrott (EMI) and the Purcell Quartet (Chandos) do away with the chorus altogether. Less controversially, Gardiner eschews the brass quartet that Bach added for the Leipzig revival of Christ lag. His highly charged performance is marked by extreme contrasts, both in tempos and in dynamics. Listeners accustomed to Apollonian restraint in this music may regard Gardiner’s dramatic interpretation as something approaching irrational exuberance. A measure of that enthusiasm is carried into Cantata 31, and the conductor’s characteristic energy, somewhat tempered, informs the balance of the program. Singers and players are, as we have come to expect, excellent.


Overall, the current offering is a worthy continuation of Gardiner’s project, but if Cantata No. 4 is your principal concern, I find either Suzuki or Koopman from their respective series more to my liking. (Incidentally, the Easter cantatas were recorded in St. George’s Church in Eisenach, where Bach was baptized.)


FANFARE: George Chien