Bach: Solo Cantatas (BWV169/BWV170/BWV35) - Bernarda Fink

These three solo Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach written for Alto (or Counter-Tenor) voice BWV 35 (Geist und Seele wird verwirret), BWV 169 (Gott soll allein mein Herze haben) and BWV 170 (Vernuegte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust) belong probably to the most recorded Cantatas of the Leipzig Master.

The reason - they contain some of the most fascinating Organ Concertos Bach wrote and the Arias seem to better belong to an Opera talking about the Conditions of the Soul than to use them in the Church. They are deeply felt Soul Characteristics and the Alto Voice - in Bach's world belonging to the allegory of the "Daughter of Zion:" is perfectly trimmed to make the live eternally clear for Jesus and for the Soul itself.

But what makes Bernard Finks Interpretation different than all the Alto and Falsetto Voices we heard with these cantatas from René Jacobs to Scholl?

In a few words - they are deeply felt like not experienced a long time.

It seems to be a genuine signature of the modern old music wave to be distant to the text and to the meaning of the sung words and only and intensively concentrate on the light and easy to consume harmonious beauty of the music that has sometimes a silk and glass character.

Bernarda Fink and her partner the violinist conductor Petra Muellejans of the Freiburg Barock Orchestra live Bach's Words and bring them back into the context of the music to give the listener a ride through the experiences of the souls probably never heard before.

Fink has "guts" in her voice - she feels what she sings and she is not afraid to express it. This is not a far away eternal angel's voice singing here but a full blooded woman expressing her feelings deeply and with all kinds of spectrum an Alto voice can show. It is simply great. Tears come to the eyes when she sings "Mir ekelt hier zu leben" the farewell to a disgusting world and believes that "Gott hat alles wohlgemacht" - God made everything well.

As perfect and impressive is even the single Choral sung by the Vocal consort Berlin - one has to hear several times to feel the inspired dynamics this well tuned consort gives even a "simple" choral " You sweet Love, give us your blessing" - this record will be for sure one of the m most loved and played in everyone's record collection. Indeed well known but never heard like that before...

The last time I heard Bach's famous solo cantatas for alto, a countertenor was doing the singing. In fact, countertenors have pretty much owned this repertory the past decade or so, with Andreas Scholl's famous recording with Herreweghe getting most of the plaudits internationally. Monica Groop's 1999 recording of these same three cantatas is the last female recording that has drawn much international interest. Now, a decade later, Argentinian alto Bernarda Fink is likely to win as many awards for her recording as Groop did a decade ago.

Right from her first exclamation of "Doch nein!" in the arioso of BWV 169, "Gott soll allein mein Herze haben" (My heart shall possess God alone,) you know this woman means business when she gets involved with Bach's magnificent texts. Fink's deep and resonant instrument is perfectly suited for Bach's vocal exhortations on God, love, death, and committment to everlasting Christian life. The message from this trio of cantatas is likely best stated in a single life of BWV 170, "Vergnugte Ruh! beliebted Seelentust!" (Contented rest, beloved heart's desire) when Fink sings, "To be alive is irksome to me, therefore, take me, Jesus, undo you!"

If you've never heard Fink, she is a veteran of choral recordings lead by John Eliot Gardiner and Rene Jacobs and owns a string of solo recordings that include famous lieder from Berlioz, Brahms, Schubert and Schumann. Fink's vocal mechanics and ideologically attuned Bach style suit this music perfectly. She understands the music, the score, and transcends the two to create moments of great beauty that adorn the meaning of Bach's texts. Listen to her longing in the "Stib in mir" (die within me) aria of BWV 169 to know a complete realization of Christian fulfillment through vocal acrobatics. If you're not convinced by that, press ahead to the famous first aria from BWV 170 and hear what awaits you there. The third aria, "Wie jammern mich doch die verehrten Herzen" (How do I pity the wayward hearts), is another defining moment in this collection where soloist and Bach are one in their quest for redemption, forgiveness and everlasting life.

Fink sings wonderfully and idiomatically throughout and she is marvelously abetted by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Petra Mullejans. Even a lean and sometimes wiry period string sound fails to dampen this wonderful band's Bach playing. Here is sentiment mated to senstivity wiht expressiveness, all supporting Fink's glorious vocalizations. The packaging is equally as abudnant, which a hard cardboard box encasing a multilingual 40-page booklet with texts and translations in three languages. The realistic recording captures everything in DDD sound in this well-filled (76:20) disk.

Harmonia Mundi's publicity department wrote a fitting description of this recording on the back cover, saying: "In 1726 Bach entered a new period of creative innovation in Leipzig; renouncing the chorus, he built up a constant dialogue between solo arias and finely sculpted instrumental parts. The three cantatas presented here represent the culmination of this development, and have established their place as a peak of the recorded repertoire."

That last line applies equally to these performances. There's no question this is going to be on some "best of 2009" lists. It's the best recording I've heard this year and the best Bach cantata recording I've heard in at least a decade. If you love Bach's alto cantatas, you need to get this. If you've never heard them, this CD expresses everything there is to say and hear in these angelic creations. It is a small slice of heaven come to earth that we can enjoy repeatedly.

This fulfills a certain need for this repertoire on a single disc and everything apart from the singing is well above-average. Unfortunately, Fink is pretty much true to form (I've heard her live several times): conscientious but never inspired. Part of the problem is her voice, which is generally pallid, not very strong at either end of the range, and rather colorless. However, most of the difficulty is interpretive. You can't imagine how superficial these readings are until you've heard others, such as the BWV 170 in the classic recording on L'Oiseau-Lyre with Janet Baker -- this is music that combines passion and devotion and it requires great artistry to achieve this combination.