Bach: Cantatas Vol 53 / Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$21.99Mar 01, 2013
The three cantatas on this recording come from the first half of the 1730s, by which time J.S. Bach was no longer writing a new cantata every week. In these later works, Bach’s affinity for instrumental colour is coming more clearly to the fore, as are elements of the new ‘empfindsamer Stil’ with its tendency towards expressive melodies rich in syncopations and suspensions, and towards homophonic writing. The three cantatas are also linked in that they are all chorale cantatas, harking back to Bach’s second year in Leipzig (1724–25), when the cantatas that he wrote were each based in their entirety on a well-known hymn. The opening cantata, In allen meinen Taten BWV 97, is a setting of nine strophes from a poem by Paul Fleming, one of the great German baroque poets, and begins with a splendid French overture, in which the orchestra intones a solemn, slow introduction with the typical dotted rhythms, followed by a lively fugal section during which the choir makes its entry. This is followed by BWV 177, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, which at its centre has the aria Verleih, dass ich aus Herzensgrund… a heartfelt prayer from the soprano and oboe da caccia for the capacity to forgive one’s enemies. The hymn Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, on which the closing BWV 9 is based, remains an important hymn in the German Evangelical Church. The text – and Bach’s setting of it – eloquently conveys the message that it is through faith rather than deeds that mankind may achieve salvation.
Bach: Mass In B Minor / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$34.99Sep 01, 2007
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
REVIEW:
From within the midriff of the BIS cantata project, Masaaki Suzuki presents the last of his recordings of Bach’s four extant large-scale choral masterpieces. This is, as you would expect, a B minor performance of extraordinary devotional weight, as its resonant surround sound irradiates the score in a patiently constructed explication.
[The] Gloria fairly crackles and Suzuki’s careful voicing between singers and instrumentalists generates extraordinary revelations (such as the consoling beauty of the “Qui tollis” and, later, a remarkable reading of the Sanctus). The choral movements are admirably unhurried but purposeful, the light and lithe sopranos glowing like Jupiter on a clear night...“Et in unum Dominum” (with the admirable Carolyn Sampson and Robin Blaze) reveals its expectant delights, as does Blaze’s heart-stopping Agnus Dei.
[A] rounded and impressive reading whose “Dona nobis pacem” encapsulates the best of Suzuki: committed, life-affirming and generous.
Bach: Motets Bwv 225-230 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jan 01, 2010
Bach's motets have been very lucky on disc. This latest version from Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan is as good as it gets. In addition to the canonic six pieces, BWV 225-230, we also get the much more rarely heard Ich lasse dich nicht BWV Anh. 159, and O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht BWV 118. This brings the playing time of the disc up to more than 75 minutes, and may well prove important to Bach collectors. The singing is uniformly excellent, the small choir and soloists seemingly perfectly scaled to give the more complex pieces, Jesu, meine Freude in particular, plenty of contrast without any cost of contrapuntal clarity.
In the works with double choir, Suzuki has decided to double the first choir with strings, the second with winds, an excellent choice. In the other works he mixes winds and strings, always with an ear to giving each voice its own vivid identity. He doesn't dispute the authenticity of the brief BWV 230 (Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden), and the performance has great spirit and rhythmic verve. Several of these works (Fürchte dich nicht BWV 228, for example) were written for funerals, but however solemn the occasion or the mood, the music always soars. BIS's SACD sonics are typically marvelous. Just great!
Bach: Lutheran Masses, Vol. 1 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jul 10, 2015
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
By Bach's time, the Reformation had fundamentally altered the traditional forms of church service, and in German churches Latin had yielded to the country's own language. To a limited extent, however, the Latin mass text did remain in use in the Protestant church – in particular the Kyrie and Gloria sections, which were often set to music as an entity in their own right. Albeit incomplete, this form of mass setting was termed ‘Missa’, a name it retained even in Bach’s day. Nowadays, to differentiate them from complete settings, these pieces are often referred to as 'Lutheran Masses'. Bach's famous Mass in B minor, later expanded into a complete mass, began its existence as a work of this type, and four other examples from Bach's pen have survived. They all make extensive use of earlier compositions, and the two masses on the present disc consist entirely of so-called parodies: reworkings of arias and choruses from cantatas, in which Bach demonstrates his skill in adapting existing music for new uses. Performed by Bach Collegium Japan – who under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki have already recorded the original settings as part of their acclaimed cantata series – the Missae BWV 235 and 236 are here combined with four separate settings of the Sanctus, another section of the traditional mass that in Bach's time could be heard in the churches of Leipzig during important feast days. Two of these are original compositions, whereas BWV 241, and possibly also 240, is an arrangement of a setting by another composer. The 'Kyrie – Christe' BWV Anh. 26 is also an example of how Bach in his task of providing the music for church services used music by other composers. In this case he turned to a movement from a mass by his contemporary Francesco Durante from Naples, but adapted it for his own purposes by composing a new setting – a duet for soprano and alto – of the Christe eleison section, labelling it 'Christe di Bach' in his autograph.
Review:
Suzuki's solo 'A team' are out in force and generally deliver excellent and communicative quasi-arias...The choruses are perhaps a touch less well-heeled and defined than usual, in both consistency and balance, but Collegium Musicum Japan compellingly advocate both Masses as well as the festive Kyrie and Sanctus settings.
With forty or so complete recordings and countless discs of highlights, a Japanese performance of this most beloved of English choral works may seem an unlikely contender. Yet the Bach Collegium Japan has already established itself as one of the most interesting period ensembles specialising in Baroque music, and this account has much to recommend it, not least Suzuki’s obvious affection for the piece. The sound is warm and detailed, though occasionally the voices are swamped by the orchestra; tempi are thoughtfully judged and the fresh-voiced choir sings with remarkable clarity and impeccable diction. Suzuki has chosen two very young Japanese soloists for the soprano and countertenor parts, alongside two highly experienced English singers for the tenor and bass. Soprano Midori Suzuki has a light, boyish voice, not without imperfection but affectingly naive; countertenor Yoshikazu Mera has an innocent, tender alto range that belies a surprisingly powerful lower register; tenor John Elwes is agile, lyrical, perfectly focused; and David Thomas makes an imposing, if somewhat stentorian, bass. By pitting innocence against experience, Suzuki has achieved a particularly moving account.
Bach: Secular Cantatas, Vol. 9 - Contest of Phoebus & Pan / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jan 05, 2018
Most of Johannes Sebastian Bach’s secular cantatas were written for specific political, academic or private festive occasions. In the case of Geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201, however, it may well be that Bach composed it for his own sake: the message conveyed in the work can be interpreted as a defence of Bach’s own artistry and musical attitudes against the trend of the time towards easier fare.
Subtitling the cantata ‘dramma per musica’, Bach sets an episode from Greek mythology in which Phoebus (Apollo) and Pan enter into a musical contest. Phoebus, the god of the arts, presents a beautifully balanced and technically accomplished aria, while Pan sings a rustic dance tune. The judges offer Phoebus the prize, but the verdict isn’t unanimous – King Midas prefers Pan’s catchy ditty, for which Phoebus punishes him by giving him donkey ears. On this amply-filled disc Bach’s praise of high art is followed by another tribute, now to Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. It is likely that Augustus never knew that the same music had been used 10 years earlier to congratulate a Leipzig academic on his promotion: Auf, schmetternde Töne… BWV 207a is based almost entirely on Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten, BWV 207. But Bach was something of the recycler’s recycler, and already BWV 207 included music from the First Brandenburg Concerto, with a choir added to the forces, and trumpets and timpani replacing the horns.
REVIEWS:
BWV201 is an enormous piece lasting over three-quarters of an hour...The score is packed with imaginative passages describing the landscape, the characters and the events of the preposterous mythological scenario. It is, needless to say, utterly superb music.
BWV207a...like the companion piece on this disc, is indulgently scored with trumpets and timpani in addition to the usual woodwind and strings. A grand and exciting sound it all makes too. Thirty minutes of the most glorious music.
It is almost superfluous to mention that the performers are excellent, the notes are detailed and scholarly and the recording is spectacular in its clarity and spaciousness but still a realistic sound picture of the recording space.
The 26th Volume of Bach Cantatas with Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan consists of three works composed for performances during the last three months of 1742. They are part of the composer's projected (but discontinued) Chorale Cantata Year, in which every cantata for a whole year was to be based on a well-known chorale rather than on the traditional gospel reading for the Sunday in question. The text of the chosen hymn was thus reworked by the librettist into poems suitable for setting into recitatives, arias, duets etc. Of the three works in question, BWV 180 (Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele) is the most famous -- based as it is on a communion hymn by Johannes Crüger. Among Bach connoisseurs, its opening chorus -- which also opens the disc -- has long been regarded as one of the most beautiful in any of the cantatas. ('One can tell from the composition that the master was working on one of his favourite melodies', wrote Albert Schweitzer.) BWV 122 (Das neugeborne Kindelein) was intended for the Sunday after Christmas, which in 1742 was also New Year's Eve, and is a meditation on the future, seen in the light of the recent birth of the Saviour. The BIS Cantata Cycle has recently been earning even more praise than usual. In the yearly best-of-lists of the critics of the German magazine Fono Forum, the whole series is put forward as Edition des Jahres, and Volume 24 was named Choc de l'année in the influential French review Le Monde de la musique, while Diapason gave it their November Diapason d'Or. In the same month Volume 25 was chosen as Disc of the Month by BBC Music Magazine, while in the December issue the Gramophone critic wrote: 'Suzuki projects the unity of each work with carefully sculpted opening choruses, well-leavened recitatives and urgent, radiant orchestral playing -- a recording series, reaching near its mid-point, of outstanding consistency.' This the 26th volume will surely be seen as a worthy successor!
As the composer that Johann Sebastian Bach at the age of twenty walked more than 400 kilometres in order to meet, Dietrich Buxtehude holds a place of honour in the history of music. Luckily, an important portion of his music, mainly vocal works and organ pieces, has also survived. Having spent his childhood and early years in Helsingborg and Elsinore, on either side of the strait that divides Denmark and Sweden, Buxtehude was recruited as organist by the congregation of the great Marienkirche in the wealthy Hanseatic city of Lübeck. On the basis of this, as well as the challenges posed by his organ compositions, it is safe to assume that he was a virtuoso on his instrument. He would also have been a connoisseur of fine organs - the finest of which at the time were to be found in Northern Germany. Two such magnificent instruments still exist in the small towns of Altenbruch and Lüdingworth, some 130 kilometres west of Lübeck, and on them Masaaki Suzuki here performs a varied selection of Buxtehude's organ works. This ranges from brief chorale preludes to the magnificent Te Deum laudamus and the celebrated Ciaccona in E minor. Although he is most widely known for his on-going, highly praised series of Bach's cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki in fact began his professional career as a church organist at the age of twelve, later studying the instrument both in Tokyo and in Amsterdam. For BIS he has previously recorded Bach's Organ Mass ('an organist of distinguished musicianship and superior technique' wrote the American Record Guide) and organ works by Sweelinck, a disc which upon its release was recommended by Gramophone and described in International Record Review as containing 'performances which are compelling in their stylistic integrity and uncompromising musicianship.'
Bach: Cantatas Vol 10 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
CD
$21.99Jun 01, 1999
This 10th volume in BIS's ongoing Bach cantata series features three works Bach composed during his first summer in Leipzig. While BWV 179 certainly has been recorded more frequently, BVW 186 (Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht) is the most significant of the three because of its greater length and because it marks Bach's return to two-part cantata form. Based on a revised lost cantata originally composed at Weimar, this is a remarkably assured work, grand in conception yet subtle in its underlying beauty. The opening chorus must be counted among Bach's most stately, its impact augmented by multiple oboes, strings, and full continuo. Among the soloists, tenor Makato Sakurada delivers an introspective fourth-movement recitative that perfectly sets up his spirited fifth-movement aria. Equally distinguished is the 10th-movement duet, expertly harmonized by countertenor Robin Blaze and soprano Miah Persson--a dance that steps as high as any we've heard from Bach so far.
The popularity of BWV 179--Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei (Make sure that your fear of God is not hypocrisy)--is understandable since it not only includes one of Bach's most exciting opening choruses, but also gives unusual dramatic license to the soloists through the text's many self-deprecating references. In respect to the latter, for its sheer declarative power, no recording surpasses Karl Richter's awe-inspiring 1976 Archiv account featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, and Edith Mathis. While not quite up to Richter's level, Suzuki and his forces offer their own interpretive details. For instance, in the fifth-movement aria Suzuki broadens the tempo, and the additional time (more than a minute longer than Richter's version) heightens Persson's characterization of wanton shame and pity. The only performance slower than Suzuki's (more than a minute longer!) is Gunther Ramin's, where Elisabeth Meinel-Asbahr's ruthless, devastating anguish guarantees tears.
BWV 105--Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht (Lord, do not enter into judgment with thy servant)--also features many inspired moments. The magnificent, brooding opening chorus is most engaging, and tenor Sakurada's beautifully rendered espousal of determination in his fifth-movement aria is superb--as is the final chorale, where Bach's clever, near-dissonant string writing effectively alludes to weariness if not weeping, the gradually slowing pulse eventually leading to resigned calm.
As usual with this series Suzuki and his colleagues deliver performances that more often than not are without peer. Faithfully captured by BIS's expert engineering team, their ongoing cycle promises to be the most consistently rewarding one currently or previously available.
Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, Apollon musagete & Concerto in D for Strings / Suzuki
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jun 10, 2016
A leading authority on Bach, conductor Masaaki Suzuki now tackles his first album by a twentieth century composer. Collaborating with the acclaimed ensemble Tapiola Sinfonietta, Suzuki has chosen the works of Stravinsky for this release. Tracks include Pulcinella Suite, Apollon Musagete, and Concerto in D for Strings.
Bach: Cantatas Vol 12 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
CD
$21.99Feb 01, 2000
The astonishing variety of Bach’s cantatas is brilliantly illustrated by these CDs. Vol. 12 of Masaaki Suzuki’s ongoing cycle features a pair of extended, two-part cantatas: BWV 147, best-known for its lovely chorale (aka ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’), and BWV 21, described by Nicholas Anderson as having ‘a dramatic intensity hardly inferior... to that of the two great Passions’. Both cantatas have their origins in Bach’s Weimar period but are presented here in their later, Leipzig versions.
As is to be expected from Suzuki, the performances are meticulous and sensitive, and he brings out each cantata’s different emotional character with quiet authority. BWV 21 is particularly impressive, his team breathing vivid life into Bach’s portrayal of the Soul’s journey from darkest night to heavenly bliss. In contrast to this spiritual introspection, Philippe Herreweghe’s excellent disc features three cantatas Bach wrote for the annual inauguration of the Leipzig town council. This is public-event music, ablaze with ceremonial splendour: the earliest cantata, 1723’s BWV 119, begins with a French overture and is among the most richly scored of all the cantatas. The other two follow suit, jubilant choruses and brass fanfares proclaiming civic pride, though Bach takes care to balance this pomp with more delicate colours in the arias. Funeral music, yet another facet of the Cantor’s output, is explored on John Eliot Gardiner’s newly reissued 1989 recording. The deft vocal interweavings of the Actus tragicus and the Trauer Ode’s lavish salute to the Electress Christiane are adeptly handled by Gardiner, whose (relatively) small forces give the music a rapt, devotional air. In this company, Stephen Cleobury’s King’s College double seems lacklustre. The programme, which mixes major works with miniatures and extracts, is cluttered, the latter pieces merely distractions. Performances, while good, rarely match the precisely focused, sharply etched flair so evident on the Herreweghe and Suzuki discs. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)
Bach: The Vocal Works / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$349.99$499.99Save 30%Apr 26, 2024
Hailed by the international music press and highly praised by music connoisseurs, the recordings of Bach’s entire body of vocal music made by the Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ), its conductor Masaaki Suzuki, and numerous prestigious soloists, many of whom have remained remarkably loyal to the undertaking from the outset, are here brought together to form the only complete set of these works in Hybrid SACD format.
Suzuki’s aim with these works is to deliver ‘a message which can touch the human heart, regardless of nationality or cultural tradition’. Thus, he delivers performances characterized by particular attention to natural phrasing and timbral homogeneity in the service of transparency, finely articulated expression without affectation, and a balanced dialogue between voices and instruments.
In addition to its 78 discs, which include sacred and secular cantatas, the two Passions, the Christmas, Easter, and Ascension Oratorios, the Mass in B minor, the motets, the Magnificat, the Lutheran Masses, as well as songs and alternative movements, this box set includes four booklets providing essays about the music (in English, German, and French) by world-renowned experts on the music, as well as all the sung texts (in German and English translation).
Before conquering concert halls with his symphonies, Johannes Brahms made a name for himself as a choral conductor. He led vocal ensembles in his hometown of Hamburg, in Detmold and Vienna, enriching the repertoire with his own music. Composed between 1865 and 1868, Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) is his most extensive choral work and a milestone in his artistic development. In this work, Brahms combined text passages from the Old and New Testaments in an unconventional way: the 'target' of the text and music is no longer the deceased, for whose salvation we pray, but the survivor, who is to be consoled. He thus turned away from ecclesiastical conventions and created a very atypical requiem which has nothing to do with the Catholic Church's often-set Latin requiem mass. Instead, it was conceived from the outset for the concert hall or church concerts. Musically the Requiem draws from earlier traditions in a highly personal way while remaining firmly in a Romantic choral idiom, at times embedded in lush orchestral textures. After countless acclaimed recordings devoted to the religious music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan now present their unique vision of Brahms's masterpiece.
Bach: Cantatas Vol 36 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jul 01, 2007
Four cantatas written for services during April 1725 make up the programme on this disc. Just before Easter that same year, Bach had put an end to his projected chorale cantata cycle, originally planned to span the entire church year. These particular cantatas did hot have a direct association with the gospel passage for the days in question; instead they used specific hymns as their starting point. All four cantatas on the present disc deal with the interplay between the resurrected Christ and his disciples. Among the soloists, Yukari Nonshita and Robin Blaze are well-known to the followers of this series, while James Gilchrist and Domink Wörner both appear in it for the second time. For this particular disc, Bach Collegium Japan are visited by Dan Laurin, who performs the virtuosic flauto piccolo part in BWV 103, and Dmitry Badiarov, who plays his own, unique reconstruction of a violoncello piccolo in BWV6.
Bach: Johannespassion / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
CD
$34.99Feb 01, 1999
It’s reported that, after a Passion performance (composer unknown), an elderly noble widow exclaimed: ‘God save us, my children! It’s just as if we were at a comic opera.’ Though Bach never wrote an opera, he was no stranger to the genre. His cantatas reflect the recitative/aria structure and the Passion story provided the missing element, dramatic narrative. In the theatre of his imagination, Bach’s response matched anything staged by his secular contemporaries. The music is dramatic from the start: dissonant wind above nervous violins and pulsating bass, before the choir prays of the glory and pain of the Passion. Suzuki balances the layers beautifully: the dense texture, recorded fairly close, retains every detail. Türk’s narrative as Evangelist is accompanied by harpsichord, with organ added for the words of Jesus. He sings with dramatic insight, though without the theatrical sensitivity which sets my benchmark – Rolfe-Johnson’s offhand approach to less consequential moments exemplifies the visionary realism of Gardiner and his team. The chorus is a fearsome mob – indignant, angry, self-righteous in turn. As the Christian congregation, its chorales flow without sanctimonious pauses. The soloists are superb in their eight arias, each differently coloured. Orchestral playing is meticulous, the intonation exemplary, even in the wind-players’ B flat minor graveyard, as the soprano’s heart ‘melts in floods of tears’ (No. 35). My benchmark remains. But if you prefer reverence to dramatic realism, this outstanding achievement will surely be for you. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)
Bach: Cantatas Vol 32 / Suzuki, Blaze, Kooij, Et Al
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jul 01, 2006
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. Includes cantata(s) by Johann Sebastian Bach. Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki. Soloists: Peter Kooij, Robin Blaze, Yukari Nonoshita, Andreas Weller.
Bach: Cantatas Vol 25 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
CD
$21.99Jul 01, 2004
Volume 25 of Masaaki Suzuki's Bach cantata series arrived on my desk out of sequence, providing further proof of that old adage, "Better late than never"? The disc comes in a slipcase marked Jubilee Edition, along with a separate booklet containing a celebratory essay (in four languages), a slew of encomiums (none, unfortunately, from me), and, best of all, an index of the cantatas in the first 25 volumes, arranged in BWV order. One hopes that it will be updated periodically. Three superb cantatas, dating from September and October 1724, make this one of the most attractive volumes in the series. All three are cast in the chorale-cantata format with splendid opening choruses that further illustrate Bach?s endless ingenuity. Cantata 78 opens with an intensely expressive chaconne over a lamento bass that is sounded 27 times. (For numerology buffs, 27=3x3x3 or 33 is a representation of the Trinity.) BWV 99 has a more joyful feel, with chorus and orchestra alternating in concertante style. No. 114 projects an aura of strength and confidence, its choral statements punctuated by an energetic ritornello. All three cantatas also feature memorable arias for tenor with an obbligato traverse flute. Many observers have pointed out that Bach had a virtuoso flutist at his disposal at the time, but Klaus Hofmann?s notes suggest that a superior tenor soloist may have been available then as well. BWV 78, Jesu der du meine Seele, one of the most popular of all the cantatas, contains a duet for soprano and alto that qualifies as a ?Bach moment???a movement you might profitably play for an uninitiated listener who wants to know what the fuss over JSB is all about. Did I sense a hint of impatience in Suzuki?s pacing for No. 78? If so, it would be a rare blip in an epic venture that to date has maintained a remarkably and consistently high standard. Most highly recommended, nonetheless.
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. Includes cantata(s) by Johann Sebastian Bach. Ensembles: Concerto Palatino Brass Ensemble, Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki. Soloists: Gerd Türk, Peter Kooij, Yukari Nonoshita, Robin Blaze.
Bach: Lutheran Masses, Vol. 2 / Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki
BIS
SACD
$21.99Feb 12, 2016
By the time J.S. Bach began composing, Martin Luther’s Reformation had profoundly altered the Church’s traditional form of worship. In German churches, the customary Latin had been replaced with the country’s native language, although the Latin mass text -particularly the Kyrie and Gloria portions - remained in Protestant church music. These "incomplete" mass settings were named "Missa." Today, these compositions are frequently referred to as "Lutheran Masses."
The two Lutheran Masses recorded here, like their companion works, the Missae in G Minor and G Major (BWV 235 & 236), make wide use of previous compositions by Bach and incorporate reworkings of arias and choruses from his cantatas while still holding their own distinctive mechanisms. Bach did not only perform his own compositions, he also performed works by other composers, including Marco Gioseppe Peranda, whose Kyrie-Gloria Mass is featured on this disc. Bach likely performed Peranda’s mass in the latter years of his Leipzig period.
Review:
The Bach Collegium Japan alight on the aesthetic of the new liturgical context with supreme eloquence in both of these works. Suzuki judges the pacing with quiet authority, promoting a generous phraseology where voices and instruments cohabit with a glorious quasi-nonchalance. The two Masses are among the finest recorded.
Bach: Concertos For Two Harpischords / Masaaki & Masato Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$21.99May 27, 2014
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
That Johann Sebastian Bach as Cantor at St Thomas Church in Leipzig was expected to provide the churchgoers with suitably impressive musical performances each Sunday and Feast day is quite widely known. Fewer will be aware of the fact that the post as director of the city's Collegium Musicum, which he held from 1729, in some ways was just as demanding and time-consuming. Weekly concerts all year round – and twice-weekly during the three busy fair periods (New Year, Easter and Michaelmas) – meant that Bach during his ten years as director spent far more time performing secular instrumental music in Zimmermann's coffee house – the usual concert venue – than cantatas in church. As with his church duties, Bach will also have been expected to provide repertoire for the ensemble, composing as well as arranging music by others and himself for it. Among such works will have been his various harpsichord concertos: with Bach's great reputation as a keyboard virtuoso, it is not difficult to imagine the demand by the Leipzig audiences to see their local hero shine on the stage. Three double concertos for harpsichord by Bach survive, all dating from around 1736, and all arrangements of earlier compositions. BWV 1060 is thought to have originated as a now lost double concerto for oboe and violin, while BWV 1062 is a reworking of the well-loved concerto for two violins. Unlike these two works, BWV 1061 was composed for two harpsichords from the outset, but probably started out as a concerto without orchestral accompaniment – this will have been added later. Performing these works, with a quintet of string players from the Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki is joined by his son Masato. For the present disc Masato Suzuki has also taken a page from Bach’s own book, in arranging the composer’s Orchestral Suite No.1 for two unaccompanied harpsichords.
After two volumes concentrating on solo cantatas, the full forces - including the splendid choir - of Bach Collegium Japan return in this programme of five cantatas dated 1725. The choir instantly makes its presence felt in the first movement of the opening work, BWV68. This is a large-scale hymn arrangement, where the choir is supported by an orchestra including horns and oboes. This is followed by one of the most charming and beautiful soprano arias in all of Bach's cantatas, 'Mein gläubiges Herze', in which Carolyn Sampson shines. The five works all include more or less unusual instrumental combinations, from the three recorders which lend a pastoral character to 'Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen', BWV175, to the wind quartet (two oboi d'amore and two oboi da caccia) appearing in 'Sie werden euch in den Bann tun', BWV183. The variety of timbres is further aided by the appearance of the cornet and trombones of Concerto Palatino, as well as that of Dmitry Badiarov performing the important and soloistic parts for violoncello piccolo on his own reconstruction of a violoncello 'da spalla' ('of the shoulder'). Apart from Carolyn Sampson, the vocal soloists are Gerd Türk, who glows in the intensely melodic tenor aira 'Seht, was die Liebe tut' (from BWV85), Peter Kooij, whose bass becomes the voice of Christ in 'Ich bin ein guter Hirt', (BWV85), and Robin Blaze having a fine moment in the expressive alto aria 'Komm, leite mich' (BWV175). All in all, another impressive instalment in this highly acclaimed cycle.
Bach: Secular Cantatas Vol 3 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jul 30, 2013
Although two of the works on this disc were composed for weddings, they are completely different in character. Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten is a charming and gracious garland of recitatives and arias for soprano solo in which Spring, Flora, Apollo and Amor are all invoked in a blessing of the newly wedded couple and their union. The Quodlibet (Latin for ‘what pleases’) on the other hand, is an altogether unceremonious composition which was probably intended for a private function in Bach’s own circle or family. All we have is a fragment of the work – in Bach’s own hand – and the beginning and ending of the piece, including the title page, are missing. It is therefore not even certain that it is Bach’s own work, but may have been a collaboration between several of the wedding guests. Compositions of this kind belong to a tradition which combines quotations from songs, toasts, market traders’ calls, proverbs and puns, and were especially popular at weddings – where they frequently got out of hand! The third disc in Bach Collegium Japan’s series of secular cantatas also includes a birthday cantata composed in the honour of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, Bach’s employer during years 1717–23. Durchlauchtster Leopold (‘Most illustrious Leopold’) celebrates the ‘propitious day’ while extolling the ruler’s ‘excellent attributes’ and ‘princely renown’. Two duets in minuet form lend the work the character of a courtly serenade, which didn’t stop Bach from reusing it, with a new text, as a church cantata a few years later. The name of the recipient of Schwingt freudig euch empor , another congratulatory cantata, is no longer known, but the text tells us that he was a teacher of high standing and of an advanced age. Once again Bach, who must have been attached to the work, reused it as a church cantata, but also, with the new title Steigt freudig in die Luft , as a birthday tribute to Charlotte Friederike of Anhalt-Köthen, the wife of Prince Leopold.
