Bach: Cantatas, BWV140 & 147 [CD]

Few of Bach's cantatas are better known than these, thanks to excerpts becoming well known. But there's much, much more to them than that. BWV140 is an absolute gem, and BWV147 has a lot more to offer than "Jesu, joy of man's desiring", the chorale made famous by Dame Myra Hess's piano transcription. These were released as part of Gardiner's 2000 Cantata Pilgrimage, although they were recorded long ago. They remain the best versions I've heard - although now that Gardiner has started to release the live recordings made during the pilgrimage on his own SDG (Soli Deo Gloria, and not Sod Deutsche Grammophon) label, I may have to change my mind (the first live recordings are excellent).

The performance found on this CD is the best I've heard so far.

My favourite part is the openning choral, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" which starts with a breathtaking dialogue between strings and winds.

Choir and instruments are well balanced and allow for a very pleasant listening experience.

These are probably the most famous choral works from Bach, and they are a good starting point for anyone wanting to know his work.

In the year 2000 John Eliot Gardiner, together with his colleagues here the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, to say nothing of some distinguished solo performers both vocal and instrumental, famously pursued what they call a Cantata Pilgrimage in which they recorded all Bach's surviving cantatas in various churches round the world on the liturgical dates for which the music was intended. On the back of the record box here you will see a logo `Bach Cantata Pilgrimage'. On the front you will see imaginative photography suggesting travel, along with Bach's picture. The first page of the liner leaflet consists of two things - a short statement by Gardiner written in 1999 and laying stress on the significance for Bach of the millennium year, and an editorial note saying that `Gardiner...will perform all the surviving church cantatas during...2000'. If you happen to look in less prominent places you will discover that these performances have, er - NOTHING TO DO with the year 2000 or with what we normally think of as the Cantata Pilgrimage that has been so successful. They were actually recorded in 1990 and issued by DG in 1992.

In reviewing any classical cd I normally expect to be concerned with the performance and recording above all else. Moreover I have reviewed several issues from the authentic Pilgrimage series with unalloyed enthusiasm. However in the last resort I believe that a reviewer has to be concerned with the production in toto, and I disapprove so strongly of this kind of marketing that I am prepared to scale down my evaluation drastically, despite the distinguished musicianship. Here we find two of the best known of the cantatas - Wachet Auf (`Sleepers Awake') and the top favourite of them all, no 147 with the chorale often called in English `Jesu joy'. In fact even if this had been part of the real Pilgrimage series it would not have been my favourite. I adore the cantatas themselves, the singing and playing are of a high and consistent quality (and the countertenor is the one whose tone I like better than all others' combined, Michael Chance), and the disc gives fair value in terms of quantity with 55 minutes of music. I think my reservations pertain really to the recording. It is `good', it is `faithful', but it is rather lifeless and there are definitely one or two signs of strain in the higher registers, for example in the first chorus. For performances given in the more severe style of interpretation, using authentic instruments and favouring for the most part brisk tempi, this kind of sound is not the best or most appropriate. `Jesu joy', to take the most obvious case, is charmless here, which should never be so under any circumstances or at any speed.

I take no pleasure whatsoever in submitting an unfavourable notice when the performers are musicians I admire sincerely and they are performing (I guess) well up to standard. However I prefer to be dealt with in a more open and straightforward manner by the producers and editors, I feel strongly that the way in which the production and editing have been done is almost certain to create a false impression in many quarters, and on top of that I am unravished by the recorded sound. However these two cantatas must either have been already issued or be slated for issue before long in the Pilgrimage series proper, and I look forward in due course to being able to recommend those performances and recordings as warmly as I have already recommended those among their companions that I know so far.