Johann Sebastian Bach’s religious music is, arguably, the best in its kind ever to grace the Earth. There’s no need to give any more evidence but to name a few of his more majestic works: The St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Magnificat, and his glorious Mass in B Minor, all stand as the pinnacles in music written inspired by a higher power. If we add Bach’s cantatas to his gigantic catalogue, there can be no doubt as to the certainty of the original claim.
On this double-disc by DECCA we have a collection of six of Bach’s most loved cantatas. All of them require rather small orchestral and vocal ensembles, but they demand a lot from them. From the beautiful chorales to the fugues to the tranquil recitatives and the expressive arias, there’s just too much good music on this set. Bach plays with the instruments and soloists and the meaning of the texts with a use of symbolism that requires more knowledge than average to be detected, but just a good pair of ears to be appreciated. Everyone can enjoy the peaceful music of these Cantatas, from the layman to the expert, and also from the deeply religious to the sharply atheist. This music doesn’t demand you to believe in god, it just asks you to believe in the art of a man whose faith inspired him to create some of the best music in history.
In the collection, probably the most known of the six cantatas are “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”, with its very famous choral (twice repeated) commonly known as “Jesu,Joy of Man’s Desiring (the melody of which is not Bach’s original but an arrangement of “Werde Munter” by German violinist and composer Johan Schopp) and tremendous fugal introduction, and “Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns die Stimme”, with its famous, beautiful choral “Zion Hort die Wachter Singen”, adapted as one of the Six Organ Chorales later in Bach’s life. But one of my favorites is certainly also “Liebster Gott, wann wird ich sterben”, with one of the most poetic openings in all of the works. “Ein feste Burg”, “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” and “Jesu, der du meine Seele” are also plethoric of musical delight and artistry.
The recording here by The Bach Ensemble lead by Joshua Rifkin is made on authentic period instruments and with a total respect for the original scores. As such, for example, in “Ein Feste Burg”, the trumpets and timpani commonly heard in the first and fifth sections of the work have been eliminated, as they were added by Bach’s son, Wilhelm Friedemann, after the master’s death. The playing is quick and agile, very relaxed, with little of the pomp given to Bach cantatas by larger, modern-instrument orchestras, but a sense of intimacy and connection with the thematic material higher than in competing versions. In general, this is a fantastic double set and one I strongly recommend.
4/5
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