BACH Cantatas Nos. 48, 73, 44, 109 & • Philippe Herreweghe, cond; Dorothee Mields (sop); Damien Guillon (ct); Thomas Hobbs (ten); Peter Kooij (bs); Collegium Vocale Gent (period instruments) • PHI LPH 012 (68:30 Text and Translation)


& SCHELLE Komm, Jesu, komm


First, let’s satisfy your insatiable curiosity. Johann Schelle (1648–1701) was Bach’s predecessor once removed at Leipzig. Schelle served the Thomaskirche as Kantor from 1677 until his death in 1701. He also had the distinction of having sung under Heinrich Schütz in Dresden. The Harvard Biographical Dictionary credits him with introducing the Gospel cantata and the chorale cantata to Leipzig, but little of his music is extant. He was succeeded by Johann Kuhnau (1660–1722), who is best known unfortunately and unfairly for dying, thus leaving the vacancy ultimately filled by Bach in 1723. According to HBD, Kuhnau encountered difficulties in his later years in Leipzig, but his compositions were well regarded in his day. Schelle is represented on this disc by a brief (4:14) funeral motet.


Although Philippe Herreweghe’s recordings of Bach’s major choral works and his forays into the cantata repertory are universally admired, he hasn’t committed himself to record a comprehensive edition of the cantatas. He has preferred to approach the repertory at a slower pace, recording individual discs built around themes. The present disc is one, but its theme, Leipzig Cantatas, seems a little broad. It’s not. In assembling the program Herreweghe has indentified three basic compositional patterns in the cantatas and chosen one of each from the first Leipzig cycle and appended another that does not follow any of the three structural models. It’s all very interesting, but if it strikes you as being a bit too analytical for comfort, let me assure you that it will have no affect on your enjoyment of these superb performances.


With his mounting discography, is Herreweghe apt to become a stealth completist? Would that he were, but it may take a while. He’s a little than a quarter of the way through the list, and he’s on his third label (Harmonia Mundi, Virgin and, now, Phi). But don’t forget that his Collegium Vocale provided the choral contingent for most of Gustav Leonhardt’s share of the Teldec series. He knows his way around the cantatas, and it shows.


FANFARE: George Chien    

Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1603 after an eleven-year gestation, bears witness to the metamorphosis of the madrigal and the rapid evolution of music at the turn of the two centuries. It is also a model of the genre and may be regarded as one of the most innovative and emblematic of its composer’s style. This bold, complex book is the culmination of the application of the precepts of the seconda pratica on the cusp of the seventeenth century. The dedication tells us that some of its madrigals had been intended for presentation to Duke Alfonso II d’Este (who died in 1597), thus revealing the key influence on this collection of the court of Ferrara, then one of the most sophisticated in Europe and a crucible of musical innovation. Following the release of the Vespers, Philippe Herreweghe, a great lover of Italy and its repertory, accompanied as ever by Collegium Vocale Gent, signs his second recording devoted to Monteverdi on the Phi label with this Fourth Book of Madrigals.

Composed in 1866 for the inauguration of a votive chapel in Linz Cathedral, Anton Bruckner’s Mass no. 2 is a fine example of modernity blended with a centuries-old religious tradition, in that wind instruments are set in dialogue with choral writing inspired by Gregorian chant. Shorter in duration but scored for chorus and large orchestra with four soloists, his Te Deum of 1881 was acclaimed by such illustrious contemporaries as Hans Richter and Mahler, while the composer, usually very self-critical, opined that the score of this work would make God ‘judge him kindly’. Like the eminent interpreter of the sacred repertory he is, Philippe Herreweghe here conveys with great fervor his vision of these two major religious works of the second half of the nineteenth century.

After a widely acclaimed St John Passion in 2020 (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine Choice, Trophée Radio Classique), Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent continue their in-depth exploration of the works of the composer who has earned them worldwide fame. Of the two cantatas recorded here, Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist BWV 45, written in 1726, is built around a very virtuosic, almost operatic bass solo setting scriptural words of Christ. Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198, which dates from the following year, was composed for the funeral of Christiane Eberhardine, Electress of Saxony and titular Queen of Poland, the daughter of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth and an ardent Lutheran, whose death had deeply affected the people of Leipzig. These works are accompanied by the soothing, luminous motet O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (BWV118), also composed for a funeral service in 1736 or 1737.

Philippe Herreweghe records his third disc devoted to a controversial figure in the world of music and art in general: Carlo Gesualdo, who had his wife murdered and is suspected of having his son smothered. This time Collegium Vocale Gent performs his fifth book of madrigals (1611), published two years before his death. A collection that even today contributes to the eternal debate: to what extent does art become impregnated with reality, and how can it be appreciated when it emanates from a mind living so close to horror? Here the bold dissonances and sometimes tortured expressiveness that can be perceived in his harmonic language offer food for thought. Can we speak of redemption through art for a murderous composer in the twilight of his life?

For the third time on the Phi label, Philippe Herreweghe gives us the opportunity to (re)discover three cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach – Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101, Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103 and Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit, BWV 115. After two albums of cantatas written during the composer’s first year in Leipzig (LPH006 and LPH012), the Belgian conductor and his Collegium Vocale Gent, orchestra and choir, will be performing three cantatas he composed during his second year as Kantor at St Thomas’s. The choir and vocal soloists are once again challenged to produce performances of subtlety and refined virtuosity, and the instrumentarium is as rich and colourful as those heard previously in this series. This album, a genuine delight for aficionados and novices alike, precedes a further disc of cantatas which will be released in spring 2018.

Bach’s St John Passion, with its famous opening chorus traversed by shadows and light, is a powerful musical and spiritual reflection. Dramatic, grandiose, complex, resolutely theatrical: there has been no lack of superlatives to describe this supreme masterpiece of western music. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent present an accomplished reading that reflects their knowledge of the composer, based on extensive research and deepened by countless concerts. Soloists Krešimir Stražanac and Maximilian Schmitt demonstrate the breadth of their talents in the roles of Jesus and the Evangelist.

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REVIEW:

Contributing to the discerning unity of vision and character of this performance is how the instruments sit embedded at the heart of the vocal sound…This is indeed one of the most thoughtful, affecting and powerful St John Passions in recent years. It reveals the mature mastery of Herreweghe at his most perspicacious and consistent, with Collegium Vocale Gent paving the way with gold.

– Gramophone

'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again". Philippe Herreweghe's longlasting interest in the works of the Cantor of Leipzig has turned him into a man whose views evolve as he delves deeper into his subject matter. The joy that he feels - combined with a very legitimate sense of pride - in having forged musical tools that have today reached maturity, has led him to come back on a Missa that has never ceased to intrigue him: the catholic Missa of the protestant composer Bach. Last spring, the Jesus-Christus Kirche in Berlin came alive with the splendid sounds of Bach's score as preceding recordings of the Missa no longer met the radiant vision that the Flemish maestro had of it. Together with a handful of excellent soloists - included in the choir - and a Collegium vocally and instrumentally at its best, Philippe Herreweghe delivers a work that must be savoured like a sweet or a last supper where rigor and hedonism, inner depth and outer seduction tenderly offer themselves to the listener.

In a series of interviews with Camille De Rijck, Philippe Herreweghe sums up his musical trajectory by offering the reader his reflections, intermingling musical and personal considerations. A selection of archive illustrations to delight the eyes and an updated biography complete the contents of the book, which is published in four languages. A five-disc compilation of extracts chosen and discussed by the conductor himself provides a musical counterpoint to the text. The selection enables you to explore a whole life through the finest works of such composers as Lassus, Schein, Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Dvorak and Stravinsky. Thanks to the long-standing close collaboration between Philippe Herreweghe and his favorite ensembles - Collegium Vocale Gent, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysees and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic - this anthology of his most remarkable interpretations is also an opportunity to experience at leisure the extraordinary palette of colors and timbres that he invariably succeeds in obtaining from them, and transports us to the very heart of the Flemish conductor's inner world.

Founded by Philippe Herreweghe at a time when the Baroque revival was still a matter for specialists, Collegium Vocale Gent has been at the heart of the rediscovery of Bach's sacred music. This ten-album set brings together some of his finest sacred vocal works, from a selection of Leipzig cantatas (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Choc de Classica etc.) to the St John Passion (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Trophée Radio Classique) by way of the Mass in B minor. Collegium Vocale Gent was one of the first ensembles to use new ideas about baroque performance practice in vocal music. Their authentic, text-oriented and rhetorical approach gave the ensemble the transparent sound with which it would acquire world fame. In recent years, Collegium Vocale Gent has grown organically into an extremely flexible ensemble whose wide repertoire encompasses the full range of different stylistic periods from Renaissance up to contemporary music. Besides its own baroque orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent works together with several historically informed ensembles, including the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Freiburger Barockorchester and Akademie fü r Alte Musik Berlin. It also works with prominent symphony orchestras such as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest. Since 2017 the ensemble runs its own summer festival, Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi, in Tuscany, Italy. Collegium Vocale Gent enjoys the financial support of the Flemish Community and the city of Ghent.