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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Bach wrote a multitude of cantatas. Where to start? Here! This is a selection of favourite cantatas. Mine too!
Beautifully sung by a group of well-fitted soloists and instrumentalists using authentic baroque instruments.
The opening track puts well one of Bach's all-out statements of faith - 'Heart and voice and deed and life must give witness to Christ without fear or hypocrisy, proclaiming him God and Saviour.' These cantatas express the deep joy to be found in his faith. Within BWV 147 one of the most famous movements is to be found twice - a really dancing 'Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.'- CD 1 tracks 6 and 10. Joshua Rifkin's instrumentalists are well able to step into the limelight as and when required for solos on trumpet, oboe d'amore, oboe da caccia and wonderfully on flute. This flute is to be found in a unique magically evocative movement at the beginning of BWV 8. - CD 1 track 19. The rhythmic flow of these cantatas is maintained with some fine continuo playing. One of the world's most recorded soprano voices is that of Julianne Baird. She sings a marvellous virtuoso soprano solo in BWV 51. The final movement of this cantata is to be found on CD 2 track 12 - a tremendous Alleluja solo. In addition, there is a very informative booklet with these CDs and also the words of the cantatas well translated and easy to follow. If you want a share in all this joy these are the CDs for you.
Beautifully sung by a group of well-fitted soloists and instrumentalists using authentic baroque instruments.
The opening track puts well one of Bach's all-out statements of faith - 'Heart and voice and deed and life must give witness to Christ without fear or hypocrisy, proclaiming him God and Saviour.' These cantatas express the deep joy to be found in his faith. Within BWV 147 one of the most famous movements is to be found twice - a really dancing 'Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.'- CD 1 tracks 6 and 10. Joshua Rifkin's instrumentalists are well able to step into the limelight as and when required for solos on trumpet, oboe d'amore, oboe da caccia and wonderfully on flute. This flute is to be found in a unique magically evocative movement at the beginning of BWV 8. - CD 1 track 19. The rhythmic flow of these cantatas is maintained with some fine continuo playing. One of the world's most recorded soprano voices is that of Julianne Baird. She sings a marvellous virtuoso soprano solo in BWV 51. The final movement of this cantata is to be found on CD 2 track 12 - a tremendous Alleluja solo. In addition, there is a very informative booklet with these CDs and also the words of the cantatas well translated and easy to follow. If you want a share in all this joy these are the CDs for you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Joshua Rifkin leads The Bach Ensemble in this truly magnificent recording of some of the Cantatas by Bach. These recording date from the mid 1980s and the performance and digital sound are excellent.
Most of the sections are solo numbers. Rifkin has taken a refreshing look at the sources for these works. The resulting interpretational effort of the Cantata No 80 is different to other recordings. Rifkin gives the choruses to four voices only; and he applies the same practice to the instrumental parts.
Rifkin has chosen to use a female voice in the soprano register for the boy treble parts. This is a reasonable thing considering modern boy voices are unlikely to convey the expressive potential of Bach`s vocal writing.
For the alto register, Rifkin uses an adult male voice. This offers an expressive sensibility to do justice to the music.
The performance is lively and fresh. For example the brisk tempo of the chorale "Jesus bleibet meine Freude", more familiarly known to us as "Jesu, joy of man's desiring" from Cantata No. 147.
The fugal opening chorus also works well. In fact once again we get a rather unique interpretation of this part.
The instrumental playing is very enjoyable and the woodwind and brass players make strong contributions.
The whole recording is on authentic instruments. The oboe playing by Stephen Hammer, Virginia Brewer and Marc Schachman is very atractive. Jane Bryden is Soprono, Drew Minter is counter tenor, Jeffrey Thomas is Tenor and Jan Opalach is bass. In fact all that perform on this outstanding recording should be comended for their wonderful contribution. The resulting recording is one that shows off the beauty of Bach`s cantata output.
This is a very good release with strong performance and great sound engineering. It is a recording that should not be overlooked.
Most of the sections are solo numbers. Rifkin has taken a refreshing look at the sources for these works. The resulting interpretational effort of the Cantata No 80 is different to other recordings. Rifkin gives the choruses to four voices only; and he applies the same practice to the instrumental parts.
Rifkin has chosen to use a female voice in the soprano register for the boy treble parts. This is a reasonable thing considering modern boy voices are unlikely to convey the expressive potential of Bach`s vocal writing.
For the alto register, Rifkin uses an adult male voice. This offers an expressive sensibility to do justice to the music.
The performance is lively and fresh. For example the brisk tempo of the chorale "Jesus bleibet meine Freude", more familiarly known to us as "Jesu, joy of man's desiring" from Cantata No. 147.
The fugal opening chorus also works well. In fact once again we get a rather unique interpretation of this part.
The instrumental playing is very enjoyable and the woodwind and brass players make strong contributions.
The whole recording is on authentic instruments. The oboe playing by Stephen Hammer, Virginia Brewer and Marc Schachman is very atractive. Jane Bryden is Soprono, Drew Minter is counter tenor, Jeffrey Thomas is Tenor and Jan Opalach is bass. In fact all that perform on this outstanding recording should be comended for their wonderful contribution. The resulting recording is one that shows off the beauty of Bach`s cantata output.
This is a very good release with strong performance and great sound engineering. It is a recording that should not be overlooked.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
If Bach had been asked to select Desert Island discs from his own work, he would probably have chosen some of his sacred cantatas. Including, perhaps, some of those recorded on this double CD.
Many of Bach's church cantatas provide solace for a Lutheran congregation forced to contemplate transience, suffering and death. The texts he set music to frequently allude to such themes. Bach's response in his cantatas is nothing if not varied - sometimes melancholic (BWV82) more often joyfully ebullient (78ii, 8i) and nearly always life-affirming.
A few of these tracks have found fame in one way or another. 140iv, for example, is instantly recognisable (as the Organ Chorale) thanks to the kind of exposure that no piece of music with a 'memorable tune' can ever hope to escape. Likewise 'Jesu, Joy of Man's desiring', 147vi & x. Fortunately, these same cantatas offer plenty of fresher delights, like 140's majestic opening movement or its lyrical third movement, where violin and voices combine in a way that clearly inspired Bach so much.
For me, though, the real highlight of this set is the opening movement of BWV8. It is the kind of music that, once in your head, refuses to leave. Bach scholar Philipp Spitta thought it evoked 'the sound of tolling bells, the fragrance of blossom [and] the sentiment of a churchyard in springtime'. Springtime, exactly. But the repeated flute semi-quavers are more suggestive of birdsong than of tolling bells. (And where does a musical fragrance come from? Spitta must have been a synaesthete!) Bach's talents as a melodist are obvious, as phrase as after phrase is prolonged almost to melting point. Life effortlessly transcends death in a cantata that shows what Bach might have written as an opera composer - ironically, much more vividly here than in his secular cantatas, which seem rather tedious and trivial compared to 'Liebster Gott'.
This double CD offers outstanding value. Rifkin's tempi are nearly always incontestable (the exception being 51i, which seems too ponderous). Soloists perform well - the exception here being counter-tenor Allan Fast, whose excessive vibrato is too attention-seeking for my liking. So four stars for the CD - but five for JSB.
Many of Bach's church cantatas provide solace for a Lutheran congregation forced to contemplate transience, suffering and death. The texts he set music to frequently allude to such themes. Bach's response in his cantatas is nothing if not varied - sometimes melancholic (BWV82) more often joyfully ebullient (78ii, 8i) and nearly always life-affirming.
A few of these tracks have found fame in one way or another. 140iv, for example, is instantly recognisable (as the Organ Chorale) thanks to the kind of exposure that no piece of music with a 'memorable tune' can ever hope to escape. Likewise 'Jesu, Joy of Man's desiring', 147vi & x. Fortunately, these same cantatas offer plenty of fresher delights, like 140's majestic opening movement or its lyrical third movement, where violin and voices combine in a way that clearly inspired Bach so much.
For me, though, the real highlight of this set is the opening movement of BWV8. It is the kind of music that, once in your head, refuses to leave. Bach scholar Philipp Spitta thought it evoked 'the sound of tolling bells, the fragrance of blossom [and] the sentiment of a churchyard in springtime'. Springtime, exactly. But the repeated flute semi-quavers are more suggestive of birdsong than of tolling bells. (And where does a musical fragrance come from? Spitta must have been a synaesthete!) Bach's talents as a melodist are obvious, as phrase as after phrase is prolonged almost to melting point. Life effortlessly transcends death in a cantata that shows what Bach might have written as an opera composer - ironically, much more vividly here than in his secular cantatas, which seem rather tedious and trivial compared to 'Liebster Gott'.
This double CD offers outstanding value. Rifkin's tempi are nearly always incontestable (the exception being 51i, which seems too ponderous). Soloists perform well - the exception here being counter-tenor Allan Fast, whose excessive vibrato is too attention-seeking for my liking. So four stars for the CD - but five for JSB.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not for everyone
I confess that I bought one of these recordings when they first came out and gave it away immediately. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Teemacs
AUTHENTICITY AT A PRICE
It was Joshua Rifkin who first argued persuasively for the use of single voices per part in Bach's choruses, and that is the manner of performance he adopts here. Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2009 by DAVID BRYSON
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