Bach Cantata Series

THE BACH CANTATA PILGRIMAGE RECORDINGS

NOW AVAILABLE

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Click here to download our index to the Bach Cantatas Series. (available as a pdf)


SDG101	SDG104	SDG107	SDG110	SDG113	SDG115	SDG118

SDG121	SDG124	SDG127	SDG128	SDG131	SDG134	SDG137

SDG138	SDG141	SDG144	SDG147	SDG150	SDG153	SDG156

SDG159	SDG162	SDG165	SDG168	SDG171	SDG174

The first two volumes feature the monumental cantatas written by Bach for the Feast of St. John the Baptist and 1st Sunday of Trinity, and the more intimate cantatas included in the programmes performed in Bremen (15 Sunday after Trinity) & Santiago de Compostela (16 Sunday after Trinity).

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SDG 101 Volume 1 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Feast of St. John the Baptist:

BWV 167 - Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe
BWV 7 - Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam
BWV 30 - Freue dich, erlöste Schar

Cantatas for the 1st Sunday after Trinity

BWV 75 - Die Elenden sollen essen
BWV 20 - O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort
BWV 39 - Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes of this cd.

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SDG 104 Volume 8 (2cds) contains:

Cantatas for the 15th Sunday after trinity

BWV 138 - Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz
BWV 99 - Was Gott tut, das is wohlgetan
BWV 51 - Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!
BWV 100 - Was Gott tut, das is wohlgetan

Cantatas for the 16th Sunday after Trinity

BWV 161 - Komm, du süsse Todesstunde
BWV 27 - Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende!
BWV 8 - Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben?
BWV 95 - Christus, der ist mein leben

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes of this cd.

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Volume 24, brings live recordings from the Schlosskirche in Altenburg (featuring the famous Trost organ that Bach himself was invited to 'test' when it was newly built) and from St Mary's in Warwick.

The three cantatas for Cantate are concerned with the sorrow surrounding Jesus' farewell to his followers, the trials that await them in his absence and their joyful thoughts of seeing him again.

The cantatas for Jubilate cover a wide gamut of styles and moods and tease new meanings out of the Gospel texts. From the starkness and searing pathos of BWV 12 to the astonishing superimposition of opposing moods in BWV 103, and culminating in a searing performance of BWV 146, based on the famous D minor keyboard concerto, this release provides another example of glorious singing and playing - the vocal soloists, the Monteverdi Choir, The English Baroque Soloists and Sir John Eliot Gardiner all at their very best.

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SDG 107 Volume 24 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Third Sunday after Easter (Jubilate) (CD1)

BWV 12 - Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
BWV 103 - Ihr werdet weinen und heulen
BWV 146 - Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen

(recorded: Altenburg, Schlosskirche)
Soloists: Brigitte Geller | William Towers
Mark Padmore | Julian Clarkson

Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Easter (Cantate) (CD2)

BWV 166 - Wo gehest du hin?
BWV 108 - Es ist euch gut, dass ich hingehe
BWV 117 - Sei Lob und Ehr dem höchsten Gut (Cantata 'per ogni tempo')

(recorded: Warwick, St Mary's Collegiate Church)
Soloists: Robin Tyson | James Gilchrist | Stephen Varcoe

Monteverdi Choir | English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes of this cd.

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SDG 110 Volume 10 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (CD1)

BWV 48 - Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen
BWV 5 - Wo soll ich fliehen hin
BWV 90 - Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende
(for the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity)
BWV 56 - Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen

(recorded: Potsdam, Erlöserkirche)
Soloists: Joanne Lunn | William Towers
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

Cantatas for the Feast of the Reformation (CD2)

BWV 79 - Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild
BWV 192 - Nun danket alle Gott (occasion unspecified)
BWV 80 - Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

(recorded: Wittenberg, Schlosskirche)
Soloists: Joanne Lunn | William Towers
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

Monteverdi Choir | English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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The fifth release from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage - the previous launch issues in the series received phenomenal press coverage and tremendous reviews for performance, sound quality and packaging. This special single-cd release contains four glorious Christmas cantatas, and includes the festive and brilliant BWV 110 Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, which has irresistible swagger, innate elegance and lightness of touch. Its opening movement is identical to that of the overture to the fourth Suite, BWV 1069, but the piece sounds new-minted, alive with unexpected sonorities and a marvellous rendition of laughter-in-music. Bach’s overall design for BWV 121 Christum wir sollen loben is to mirror the change from darkness to light and to show how the moment when Christians celebrate the coming of God’s light into the world coincides with the turning of the sun at the winter solstice. And BWV 91 Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ glows with that special sense of expectation that is the hallmark of Bach in Christmas mode.

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SDG 113 Volume 14 (1 cd) contains:

Cantatas for Christmas Day & for the Second Day of Christmas

BWV 91 - Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ
BWV 121 - Christum wir sollen loben schon
BWV 40 - Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes
BWV 110 - Unser Mund sei voll Lachens

(recorded: St Bartholomew's, New York, 25 December 2000)
Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Joanne Lunn
Robin Tyson | William Towers
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

Monteverdi Choir | English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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The sixth release in John Eliot Gardiner’s Gramophone Award winning series of Bach Cantatas on his own label, is now available. The texts of the Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Epiphany describe a path from mourning to consolation, perfectly illuminated by Bach’s music - from the intense anxiety in the heart-stopping soprano arioso in the first movement of BWV 155 to the irresistible, dancing exuberance of the final aria. The two Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany include BWV 81, perhaps the most vividly operatic of all Bach’s works, and this second disc is completed by two extras: BWV 26 for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity and the Motet BWV 227.

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SDG 115 Volume 19 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Epiphany

BWV 155 - Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange?
BWV 3 - Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid I
BWV 13 - Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen

(recorded: Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | Richard Wyn Roberts
Julian Podger | Gerald Finley

Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

BWV 81 - Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen?
BWV 14 - Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit
BWV 26 - Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity)
Motet BWV 227 - Jesu, meine Freude

(recorded: Romsey, Abbey)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | Katharine Fuge
William Towers | Paul Agnew | Peter Harvey

Monteverdi Choir | English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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The seventh release in John Eliot Gardiner’s Gramophone Award winning series of Bach Cantatas on his own label, is now available. It contains Bach’s two ‘test’ pieces for the job as Cantor at St Thomas’s in Leipzig, BWV 22 & 23. The latter is particularly ingenious and sophisticated. The first disc is rounded out by performances of the musically complex and innovative BWV 127, and BWV 159 with its affinities with the two Passions. Disc 2 contains Cantatas for three different Feast Days, and includes BWV 54 with its spellbinding first aria, and the jubilant and opulently-scored springtime Cantata BWV 1. Performances are as brilliant and inspired as those of previous issues in this award-winning series.

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SDG 118 Volume 21 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for Quinquagesima

BWV 22 - Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe
BWV 23 - Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn
BWV 127 - Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott
BWV 159 - Sehet! Wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem

(recorded: Cambridge, King’s College Chapel)

Soloists: Ruth Holton | Claudia Schubert
James Oxley | Peter Harvey
The Choirs of Clare and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge

Cantatas for the Annunciation / Palm Sunday / Oculi

BWV 182 - Himmelskönig, sei willkommen (for Palm Sunday / Annunciation)
BWV 54 - Widerstehe doch der Sünde (for the Third Sunday in Lent - Oculi)
BWV 1 - Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (for the Feast of the Annunciation)

(recorded: Walpole St Peter, Norfolk)

Soloists: Malin Hartelius | Nathalie Stutzmann
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

Monteverdi Choir | English Baroque Soloists |
John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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Recorded on Whit Sunday and Monday in 2000, these irresistible cantatas display a whole range of moods: from the unalloyed optimism and exuberance of BWV 172 to the tactful restraint of the opening of BWV 59. In the grand, eight-movement BWV 74, Bach is clearly roused by imagery of Satan attempting to curse and obstruct the believer, and introduces extreme modulations and jangling cross-accents in the tenor aria. The alto aria in the same cantata stands out for its graphic description of Hell, and Bach unapologetically borrows techniques from the opera house to entertain a theatrically-deprived audience whilst serving an impeccable theological purpose. The set also includes the superb BWV 34, an exceptionally late work from the 1740s, with its enormously satisfying choral overture, which generates colossal energy and elation in performance.

With brilliant performances from the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, this aptly-timed release is the ideal next instalment in what many have already come to regard as the first choice of recorded Bach Cantata series.

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SDG 121 Volume 26 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for Whit Sunday

BWV 34 - O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe
BWV 59 - Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten I
BWV 68 - Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt
BWV 74 - Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten II
BWV 172 - Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!
BWV 173 - Erhöhtes Fleisch und Blut
BWV 174 - Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte

(recorded: Long Melford, Holy Trinity Church)

Soloists: Lisa Larsson | Nathalie Stutzmann
Derek Lee Ragin | Christoph Genz | Panajotis Iconomou

Monteverdi Choir | English Baroque Soloists |
John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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The three cantatas for the 14th Sunday after Trinity are all based on the Gospel reading of the day, the story of Jesus’ healing of ten lepers. Prime examples of the humanism of Bach’s basic approach and the audacity of his musical response, they include BWV 78, with its white-hot inspiration maintained throughout. It opens with an immense choral lament of a scale, intensity and expressive power that match the preludes of the two surviving Passions. The highlight of BWV 17, following its exhilarating and florid opening choral fugue and susequent arias, is the extended final chorale, delicate and poignant. The Feast of St Michael and All Angels was marked by Bach by a profusion of dazzling movements, including the breathtaking BWV 50. In BWV 130 God is praised for creating the guardian angels to protect the believer, and in BWV 19 Bach uses his brass instruments to represent the apocalyptic encounters in heaven between St Michael with all his angels on one side and the devil on the other.

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SDG 124 Volume 7 (2 cds) contains:

(CD1) - Cantatas for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 25 - Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe
BWV 78 - Jesu, der du meine Seele
BWV 17 - Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich

(recorded: Abbaye d’Ambronay)

soloists: Malin Hartelius | Robin Tyson | James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

(CD2) - Cantatas for the Feast of St Michael and All Angels

BWV 50 - Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft
BWV 130 - Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir
BWV 19 - Es erhub sich ein Streit
BWV 149 - Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg

(recorded: Bremen, Unser Lieben Frauen)

soloists: Malin Hartelius | Richard Wyn Roberts | James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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This second special single-cd release for Christmas in the award-winning series of recordings from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, includes BWV 151, one of his most intimate cantatas. Opening with a hauntingly beautiful and consoling soprano aria, it has pre-echoes of both Gluck and Brahms. First heard on Boxing Day 1725, BWV 57 provides us with another opportunity to enjoy Bach, who never wrote an opera, as the best writer of dramatic declamation since Monteverdi. His response to the text is highly personalised, and sparing in its modest forces although strongly expressive. A movement of infectious rhythmic élan, the opening chorus of BWV 133 conveys the exuberance and sheer exhilaration of Christmas. The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Solists give their customary brilliant performances, making this release the must-have issue of this year’s Christmas season.

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SDG 127 Volume 15 (1 cd) contains:

Cantatas for the Third Day of Christmas

BWV 151 - Süsser Trost, mein Jesus kommt;
BWV 133 - Ich freue mich in dir;
BWV 64 - Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget

Cantatas for the Second Day of Christmas

BWV 57 - Selig ist der Mann

(recorded: New York, St Bartholomew’s Church)

Soloists: Gillian Keith | Katharine Fuge | Joanne Lunn
Robin Tyson | William Towers
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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The series goes from strength to strength with the eleventh release - Easter Cantatas from Eisenach where Bach spent the first ten years of his life, recorded in the church of St George where he was baptised and had been a chorister. Eisenach is where "Bach meets Luther", with the latter also having sung here and having penned his German translations of the New Testament while confined in the Wartburg castle which overlooks the town. The performances recorded formed part of a service where the sense of Easter as the pivotal feast of the Lutheran liturgical year was palpable. Bach’s setting of Luther’s hymn Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4, is one of his earliest cantatas, a bold and innovative piece of musical drama with, at its heart, a battle between the forces of life and death from which the risen Christ emerges as victor. In seven verses and drawing on medieval musical roots, Bach’s setting is evidence of his total identification with the spirit and letter of Luther’s fiery, dramatic hymn, and this comes across clearly in this moving performance. Alongside BWV 6 & BWV 31, this magnificent set also includes BWV 66, a skilful adaptation of a lost birthday serenata for Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, the joyous BWV 134, composed for Easter Tuesday of 1724 and the exuberant BWV 145.

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SDG 128 Volume 22 (2 cds) contains:

(CD1)

Cantatas for Easter Sunday

BWV 4 - Christ lag in Todesbanden
BWV 31 - Der Himmel lacht! die Erde jubliliert

Cantatas for Easter Monday

BWV 66 - Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen

(CD2)

BWV 6 - Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden

Cantatas for Easter Tuesday

BWV 134 - Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiss
BWV 145 - Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzen

(recorded: Eisenach, Georgenkirche)

Soloists: Angharad Gruffydd Jones | Gillian Keith
Daniel Taylor | James Gilchrist | Stephen Varcoe

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

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With the twelfth release the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage moves on to Arnstadt, where in 1703 an eighteen-year-old Bach was appointed organist of the Neue Kirche. It is fitting that this new release opens with the astonishing BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, now generally accepted to be Bach’s very first church cantata and possibly composed for the Neue Kirche at some stage during his time as organist. We enter a different world with BWV 67 Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ. From the superb opening chorale fantasia, the music vibrates with a pulsating rhythmic energy and a wealth of invention. Evidently much thought went into the planning of this impressive cantata, the first in a sequence of five leading up to Whit Sunday. Hard on the heels of Bach’s magnificent cantatas for Low Sunday came three pastoral cantatas all inspired by the twenty-third Psalm. Recorded during the opening concert of the Festival International Echternach in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, BWV 104 Du Hirte Israel, höre, from Bach’s first Leipzig cycle, displays the clearest of aspiring, upward tonal designs. BWV 112 Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt is a late addition to Bach’s chorale-cantata cycle. All five verses of this superb cantata are tailored to the expression of the text, the music imaginatively and cunningly conceived, an example of Bach drawing on his experience and skill to articulate his religious convictions and to exhort, stimulate and charm his listeners.

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SDG 131 Volume 23 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the First Sunday after Easter

BWV 150 - Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich
BWV 67 - Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ
BWV 42 - Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats
BWV 158 - Der Friede sei mit dir

Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Easter

BWV 104 - Du Hirte Israel, höre
BWV 85 - Ich bin ein guter Hirt
BWV 112 - Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt

(recorded: Arnstadt, Echternach)

Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Gillian Keith | Daniel Taylor
William Towers | Charles Daniels | Norbert Meyn | Stephen Varcoe

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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With the thirteenth release the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage moves on to Köthen and Frankfurt. Bach arrived in Köthen as 'Kapellmeister and director of our chamber music' in 1717. Köthen provides one of the most cheerful programmes of the whole Trinity season. After so many consecutive weeks of fire and brimstone comes the huge relief of three genial, celebratory pieces. The opening chorus of BWV 69a Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele is freely composed and on the grandest scale. Bach is exultant, profiting from the colour contrasts available from the three groupings of his orchestra (brass, woodwind and strings).

In 1725 Bach came up with another winner, BWV 137 Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren It is a comparative rarity, his first cantata to have been constructed as a series of chorale variations in over twenty years. The highlight of the Frankfurt programme arguably is BWV 77 Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren lieben. Once again Bach does not disappoint. Here is one of those breathtaking, monumental opening choruses that defy rational explanation.

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SDG 134 Volume 6 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Twelfth Sunday Trinity

BWV 69a - Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele
BWV 137 - Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren
BWV 35 - Geist und Seele wird verwirret

Cantata for the Thirteenth Sunday Trinity

BWV 77 - Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben
BWV 164 - Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet
BWV 33 - Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ

(recorded: Jakobskirche, Köthen & Dreikönigskirche, Frankfurt)

Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Gillian Keith | Nathalie Stutzmann | Robin Tyson
Christoph Genz | Jonathan Brown | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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The fourteenth release was recorded at the 59th and final concert in John Eliot Gardiner's triumphant year-long adventure, in a packed - and hushed - St Bartholomew's New York. It opens with Bach's great double-choir motet, Singet dem Herrn BWV 225. BWV 152 Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn follows. Bach shapes this intimate chamber piece, scored only for soprano, bass and six instruments, as a spiritual and musical journey.

BWV 122 Das neugeborne Kindelein, a chorale cantata composed in 1724 as part of Bach's second mini-Christmas cycle for Leipzig, is as close to the traditional Christmas carol-like image of the infant Jesus as Bach ever got.

BWV 190 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied! was composed for New Year's Day 1724, of which the first two movements have had to be partially reconstructed since only the voice lines and two violin parts survived. Between the psalm verses Bach inserts two lines from Luther's vernacular version of the Te Deum (1529). These he assigns to the traditional liturgical plain-chant delivered in long notes by the choir in octaves, a technique of musical relief of which he was a master - and which is hugely imposing in performance.

A year later, as part of his third Leipzig cycle, Bach presented BWV 28 Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende, a fitting title to sum up the parallel sense of loss and fulfilment, relief and regret within the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists at the very end of a year-long, life-changing experience.

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SDG 137 Volume 16 (1 cd) contains:

Motet

BWV 225 - Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied

Cantatas for Sunday after Christmas Day

BWV 152 - Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn
BWV 122 - Das neugeborne Kindelein
BWV 28 - Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende

Cantata for New Year's Day

BWV 190 - Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied!

(recorded: St Bartholomew's, New York)

Soloists: Gillian Keith | Katharine Fuge | Joanne Lunn
Daniel Taylor | James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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Click here for the English sleeve notes.

The first of SDG's 2008 releases combines cantatas for Whit Tuesday and Trinity Sunday. Brandenburg Concerto No.3 precedes the two surviving Cantatas for Whit Tuesday. Pressed for time at the end of a busy Whit weekend during his first year in Leipzig, Bach based BWV 184 Erwünschtes Freudenlicht (1724) on a hasty revision of a lost Cöthen secular cantata. One might momentarily mistake the second movement of this cantata as the origin of the celebrated duet from Lakmé, before considering the long odds of Delibes ever having clapped eyes on this obscure piece. The pastoral mood continues a year later in BWV 175 Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen (1725). This is a more elaborate work, the eighth of the nine consecutive texts Bach set by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler.

Recorded in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall after one of the more dramatic journeys on the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, the first cantata for Trinity Sunday, BWV 165 O heil'ges Geist- und Wasserbad, was composed in 1715 in Weimar. It is a true sermon-in-music, based on the Gospel account of Jesus' night-time conversation with Nicodemus on the subject of 'new life'. A grand French-style overture heralds the start of BWV 194 Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest. The cantata seems to have begun life as a secular Cöthen piece some time between 1717 and 1723, and was then adapted for the dedication of the new organ at Störmthal (2 November 1723). The programme ends with the genial and uplifting work, BWV 129 Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott.

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SDG 138 Volume 27 (2 cds) contains:

BWV 1048 - Brandenburg Concerto No.3

Cantatas for Whit Tuesday

BWV 184 - Erwünschtes Freudenlicht
BWV 175 - Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen

(recorded: Holy Trinity, Blythburgh)

Soloists: Lisa Larsson | Nathalie Stutzmann
Christoph Genz | Stephen Loges

Cantatas for Trinity Sunday

BWV 194 - Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest
BWV 176 - Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding
BWV 165 - O heil'ges Geist- und Wasserbad
BWV 129 - Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott

(recorded: St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall)

Soloists: Ruth Holton | Daniel Taylor
Paul Agnew | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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Click here for the English sleeve notes.

The SDG's release of Bach Cantatas for the Fourth and Fifth Sundays after Trinity opens with BWV 24 Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, recorded in Tewkesbury Abbey as part of The Cheltenham Festival. A far earlier piece follows, BWV 185 Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe was composed in Weimar in 1715 to a text by Salomo Franck and revived by Bach in Leipzig in 1723 and again in 1746/7. Strikingly different in mood is BWV 177 Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, composed in 1732, a chorale cantata based on Agricola's hymn set unaltered and with no recitatives.

The second CD was recorded in Mühlhausen, where a twenty-two year old Bach took up his second professional post. It lasted for just one year, from June 1707 to 1708. This programme includes BWV 71 Gott ist mein König. There is nothing else quite like Gott ist mein König in Bach's oeuvre. No other work of his is laid out on such a grand scale in terms of its deployment of four separate instrumental 'choirs', set against a vocal consort of four singers, an optional Capelle of ripienists and an organ.

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SDG 141 Volume 3 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 24 - Ein ungefärbt Gemüte
BWV 185 - Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe
BWV 177 - Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ

(recorded: Tewkesbury Abbey)

Soloists: Magdalena Kozená | Nathalie Stutzmann
Paul Agnew | Nicolas Teste

Cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 71 - Gott ist mein König
BWV 131 - Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir
BWV 93 - Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
BWV 88 - Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden

(recorded: Blasiuskirche, Mühlhausen)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | William Towers
Kobie van Rensburg | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

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Click here for the English sleeve notes.

SDG's spring 2008 release combines Cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Easter with those written for the Sunday after Ascension Day. The first set of Cantatas were recorded in Dresden. It was here that Bach had been crowned unopposed keyboard champion in 1717, and also where the first two movements of what we now know as the B minor Mass were first performed in 1733. The opening cantata, BWV 86 Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch is a great example of Bach's skill to reinforce religious texts and their meanings. The final piece in the programme is BWV 97 In allen meinen Taten, a cantata without liturgical designation first performed in 1734. It uses the haunting Heinrich Isaac hymn tune 'Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen' in both its opening and concluding movements.

Recorded in Sherborne Abbey, BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich has no specified liturgical designation but is particularly apt in the period between Easter and Ascension. The two Leipzig cantatas Bach wrote for Exaudi share the title Sie werden euch in den Bann tun. BWV 44 was composed as part of Bach's first Leipzig cycle in 1724 and BWV 183 followed a year later. To balance the performance of BWV 150, the disc ends with Johann Christoph Bach's five-voiced motet Fürchte dich nicht. This is an uplifting programme recorded in a perfect acoustic setting.

Click CD to play soundbites.

SDG 144 Volume 25 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Easter

BWV 86 - Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch
BWV 87 - Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen
BWV 97 - In allen meinen Taten

(recorded: Dresden)

Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Robin Tyson
Steve Davislim | Stephen Loges

Cantatas for the Sunday after Ascension Day

BWV 44 - Sie werden euch in den Bann tun I
BWV 150 - Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich
BWV 183 - Sie werden euch in den Bann tun II
Fürchte dich nicht - Johann Christoph Bach

(recorded: Sherborne)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | Daniel Taylor
Paul Agnew | Panajotis Iconomou

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

John Eliot Gardiner’s choral Pilgrimage exploring the magnificence and grandeur of all of Bach’s cantatas continues with this 2CD release, combining cantatas for the eighth and tenth Sunday after Trinity, recorded live in August 2000.

For the first set of Cantatas we join John Eliot in Rendsburg, Germany and begin with a performance of the glorious, vehement BWV 178 Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, premiered in Leipzig on 20th July 1724. Deriving from the Gospel reading (Matthew 7:15-23), the cantata warns against hypocrites and false prophets. With its opening powerful chorus described as 'quite astonishing' by John Eliot, the mood is set for this chilling cantata fraught with anger and a grim mood of foreboding.

In contrast, hope and belief permeate the following two cantatas; BWV 136 Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz and BWV 45 Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist. The penitential tone of BWV 136 is stressed through the beautifully crafted pleas of 'Prüfe mich' ('Try me') which appear in the extensive opening choral fugue. BWV 45 is Bach’s last surviving cantata for this Sunday and is replete with emotional turmoil. From the clear weighty injunction ‘to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God’ of the first part, to the bold virtuosic bass aria condemning false prophets opening the second, the juxtaposition of the themes of damnation and salvation in this cantata are clear.

We are then taken to Braunschweig, Germany and open with Bach's first Leipzig cantata for this Sunday, BWV 46 Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz sei. Here on the tenth Sunday after Trinity the Gospel (Luke 19:41-48) tells us how Jesus predicted the imminent destruction of Jerusalem. Bach, unsurprisingly, excels producing a richly thematic cantata depicting clearly the story's vivid, unsettling patterns of destruction and restoration, of God’s anger and Christ's mercy.

The antithesis between God's anger and mercy resurfaces in Bach's two later cantatas for this Sunday; BWV 101 Nimm von uns Herr, du treuer Gott and BWV 102 Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben! In contrast to BWV 101 that is based largely on the hymn of the day sung to the melody of Luther's German version of the Lord’s Prayer, BWV 102 does not, stressing again Bach's innovative and unpredictable genius.

With their customary brilliance and expert musicianship, the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists triumph, making this the ideal next instalment in what many have already come to regard as the first choice of recorded Bach Cantata series.

Click CD to play soundbites.

SDG 147 Volume 5 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 178 - Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält
BWV 136 - Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz
BWV 45 - Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist

(recorded: 13/08/2000 Christkirche, Rendsburg)

Soloists: Robin Tyson
Christoph Genz | Brindley Sherratt

Cantatas for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 46 - Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz sei
BWV 101 - Nimm von uns Herr, du treuer Gott
BWV 102 - Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben!

(recorded: 27/08/2000 Braunschweig Cathedral)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | Daniel Taylor
Christoph Genz | Gotthold Schwarz

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

John Eliot Gardiner’s Gramophone award-winning Bach Cantata series on SDG continues with a 2CD release featuring cantatas for New Year’s Day and for the Sunday after New Year, recorded live in January 2000.

Following the Christmas festivities and to usher in the new millennium, we join John Eliot within the grand neo-Gothic Gethsemanekirche in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin for a programme consisting of Bach’s four New Year’s Day cantatas. The simple idea of a progression from beginning to end to a new beginning, permeate these cantatas. This theme is conveyed beautifully in Bach’s writing.

In contrast to the modest BWV 143 Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele II that opens the programme, Bach begins BWV 41 Jesu, nun sei gepreiset with the fantastically grand opening chorus, Jesu, nun sei gepreiset. Gardiner affirms; ‘…it is the epic scope of Bach’s vision for this opening movement which takes one’s breath away.’ The jewel in this particular cantata is the tenor aria Woferne du den edlen Frieden (No.4), one of only nine cantata movements in which Bach uses the violoncello piccolo, an instrument used by Bach to symbolise the presence and person of Christ.

Where Cantata 41 is expansive and majestic, BWV 16 Herr Gott, dich loben wir is concise and pithy, summed up in its opening chorus of just thirty-four bars. This is a jubilant chorale, justified in the 3rd movement as the bass, accompanied by the chorus, sings: ‘Let us rejoice, let us be glad.’

We then hear the last of the surviving New Year cantatas by Bach, BWV 171 Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm. This is a cantata of contrasts, ranging from the somewhat lethargic tenor aria in the second movement that conjures up a delightful image of ‘white strips of cloud trailing across the heavens’ to the magnificent closing chorale; Lass uns das Jahr vollbringen. Bach here calls on all his instrumental forces - oboes and strings to bolster the choir, trumpets and drums to interject their own fanfares, just as they did in the first movement.

It is the first Sunday after New Year and, as if accused of breaking our New Year’s resolution already, BWV 153 Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind, opens with a four-part chorale saying: ‘Behold, dear God, how my enemies with whom I must always battle, are so cunning and powerful that they can with ease subdue me.’ As the tenor (No.4) pleads for salvation, crying ‘…help, Helper, help! Save my soul!’, we are reminded that our afflictions have been heard as the alto (No.8) sings of the ‘blessed rapture and eternal joy’ of heaven. BWV 58 Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II continues this theme of the beleaguered Christian. This is wonderfully illustrated throughout through the use of the distressed, persecuted soul (soprano) in dialogue with a guardian angel, by implication, Christ (bass).

The Monteverdi Choir accompanied by The English Baroque Soloists have once again created a captivating release, adding to the already impressive Bach Cantata pilgrimage series.

Click CD to play soundbites.

SDG 150 Volume 17 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for New Year’s Day

BWV 143 - Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele II
BWV 41 - Jesu, nun sei gepreiset
BWV 16 - Herr Gott, dich loben wir
BWV 171 - Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm

(recorded: 1 & 2 January 2000 - Gethsemanekirche, Berlin)

Soloists: Ruth Holton | Lucy Ballard
Charles Humphries | James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

Cantatas for the Sunday after New Year

BWV 153 - Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind
BWV 58 - Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II

(recorded: 1 & 2 January 2000 Gethsemanekirche, Berlin)

Soloists: Sally Bruce Payne
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

As the solemn Lenten period prior to Easter approaches, Soli Deo Gloria releases the next instalment in its award-winning Bach Cantata series with a double album featuring cantatas for the second and third Sunday before Lent, recorded live in February 2000.

With Lent only a few weeks away - a time of fasting, sackcloth and ashes - we join the Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner in Naarden, Holland for a performance of Bach’s cantatas for Septuagesima.

The programme opens with Bach’s first Leipzig cycle, BWV 144 Nimm, was dein ist, und gehe hin - a cantata encapsulated by the moral drawn by Bach’s librettist from the Gospel for the day: accept and be satisfied with your lot, however unfair it may seem at the time. Following the magnificent bold and uncompromising opening, the moral of the cantata is beautifully portrayed in Murre nicht, lieber Christ - an aria set as a minuet for alto over a pulsating string accompaniment to represent the mutterings of dissatisfied Christians.

In contrast, the engaging five-movement work for solo soprano, oboe and strings, BWV 84 Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke, has no mention of the disgruntled work-force, but only of being ‘content with my good fortune that dear God bestows on me.’ Gardiner stresses this sentiment by making the choir sing the final chorale Ich leb indes in dir vergnüget (‘I live meanwhile content in thee’) a cappella and quietly. ‘I found it very affecting’, writes Gardiner.

The programme ends with the third of Bach’s surviving cantatas for this Sunday, BWV 92 Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn. Unlike the previous two cantatas, the text does not relate specifically to either of the appointed Bible readings, but asks the congregation to surrender to God’s heart and mind and to trust in Him through good and ill.

We then head to Southwell Minster for Bach’s cantatas for Sexagesima, three of his most original and startlingly different pre-Lenten cantatas. Each of these cantatas is characterised by Bach’s vivid pictorial imagination, an arresting sense of drama, and by music of freshness and power that lodges in the memory.

The first two focus upon the Gospel theme of the day - (the parable of the sower (Luke 8: 4-15) - superbly exemplified in BWV 18 Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt where Bach adds two extra viola parts to the score. The magically dark-hued sonority four violas bring stresses the overwhelming power of the Word and forms ‘an ideal seed-bed in which God’s word may germinate and prosper.’ Equally vivid and brilliant is BWV 181 Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister where, in contrast to BWV 18, Bach focuses upon those superficial, fickle people who devour the seed that ‘fell by the wayside’.

We end with BWV 126 Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, a cantata that places emphasis upon the wonder and majesty of God’s Word. ‘Erhalt uns, Herr’ (‘Uphold us, Lord’) exalt the trumpet and voices in the opening chorus, reminding the congregation that ‘God’s throne cannot be budged’.

Click CD to play soundbites.

SDG 153 Volume 20 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for Septuagesima

BWV 144 - Nimm, was dein ist, und gehe hin
BWV 84 - Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke
BWV 92 - Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn

(recorded: Grote Kerk, Naarden)

Soloists: Miah Persson | Wilke te Brummelstroete
James Oxley | Jonathan Brown

Cantatas for Sexagesima

BWV 18 - Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt
BWV 181 - Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister
BWV 126 - Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort

(recorded: Southwell Minster)

Soloists: Gillian Keith | Angharad Gruffydd Jones
Robin Tyson | James Gilchrist | Stephan Loges

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

Gardiner’s Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine award-winning Bach Cantata series on his hugely successful label, Soli Deo Gloria, releases volume 4 in the series featuring Cantatas for the Sixth and Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Recorded live in July and August 2000.

Following a moving concert commemorating the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death, set within the magical surroundings of the Scottish island of Iona, John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists continue on their Bach pilgrimage and head to Ansbach to perform at the prestigious Ansbach Bach Festival - “The Mecca…of Bach celebrations” as described by Gardiner.

The programme opens with BWV 9 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (Salvation has come to us). Although the composing score and original performing parts date from 1732-5, formally and stylistically this cantata belongs to the chorale cantatas of 1724-5. Evidence of this and of Bach’s genius in being able to write both clever and fun-loving music at the same time can be seen in the soprano and alto duet Herr, du siehst statt guter Werke.

This is then followed by the well known chamber cantata BWV 170 Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust (Pleasant Rest, Beloved Soul’s Joy), expertly sung by internationally renowned counter-tenor, Michael Chance. This is the first of two solo cantatas for alto that Bach wrote in the summer of 1726 and comprises of the three large arias for alto, between which are placed two recitatives. A highlight of the three is the first, an aria of pure enchantment, which tells, through rich and passionate music, that “pleasant rest” can be attained only though union with heaven.

The programme ends with the very moving funeral motet Der Gerechte kommt um (See, the righteous must die), attributed to Bach, an incredibly beautiful five-voiced Latin motet composed by Johann Kuhnau. The magnificence of this motet made this very popular with both the choir and orchestra thereby resulting in it being used as a regular encore on the Bach Cantata pilgrimage.

Thirty miles east from the hustle and bustle of a busy Edinburgh hosting its world famous festival, we join John Eliot and the Monteverdi forces in the collegiate church of St. Mary’s situated in the modest, tranquil market town of Haddington, Scotland.

All three of Bach’s cantatas for this day have masterly opening movements. The first, BWV 186 Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht (Trouble thyself not, O soul), comprises eleven movements and is structured in two parts. A movement that stands out is the glorious duet for soprano and alto (No.10), in which the crucial injunction ‘Sei, seele, getreu!’ (‘O soul, be true!’) is reserved until the last two bars.

We then hear BWV 107 Was willst du dich betrüben (Why wilt thou trouble thyself, oh my dear soul), a chorale cantata set per omnes versus, that is, with all the verses of a hymn set unaltered. Bach here cleverly overcomes the limitations of being confined to a rigidly structured hymn without monotony or repetitiveness through the usual devices of changing the voice type in the arias, the key and the metre.

The final chorale, BWV 187 Es wartet alles auf dich (They are all waiting on thee) is again structured in two parts and comprises of music that is both gentle and seductively beautiful. Bach clearly supports this belief by parodying the music of this cantata a decade later in his G minor Missa (BWV 235).

Click CD to play soundbites.

SDG 156 Volume 4 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 9 - Es ist das Heil uns kommen her
BWV 170 - Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust
Motet: Der Gerechte kommt um

(recorded: St Gumbertus, Ansbach)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | Michael Chance
James Gilchrist | Stephen Varcoe

Cantatas for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity

BWV 186 - Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht
BWV 107 - Was willst du dich betrüben
BWV 187 - Es wartet alles auf dich

(recorded: St Mary’s, Haddington)

Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Richard Wyn Roberts
Kobie van Rensburg | Stephan Loges

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

Gardiner’s award-winning Bach Cantata series on Soli Deo Gloria continues with volume 9 in the series featuring Cantatas for the seventeenth and eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. Recorded live in October 2000.

We join John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists on their Bach Cantata pilgrimage in the spectacular dark brown gothic Allhelgonakyrkan (All Saints Church) in Lund.

The concert explodes into action as the long fanfare-like ritornello for solo trumpet and strings herald the opening of BWV 148 Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens (Give the Lord the Glory due his Name). This grand opening leads the way for the chorus to enter with a rousing delivery of the psalm verse, ‘Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.’

This is then followed by the chorale cantata BWV 114 Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost (Ah, dear Christians, be brave), from Bach’s second Leipzig cycle. In typical Lutheran fashion, the text begins in despair and ends with the hope of redemption. The contrast between despondency and consolation is clear in the second movement for tenor, obbligato flute and continuo. Sung by the fantastic Mark Padmore,

“This is one in a series of bleak but hypnotic arias epitomising the beleaguered soul at which Bach excels”, states Gardiner.

We then hear BWV 47 Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden (Whoever himself exalteth shall be abashed) which opens with a mighty opening movement for chorus. Gardiner states in his notes that this was a choral fugue that grew on the choir, and by the encore of the second concert it had registered its considerable power with both the performers and the listeners.

The programme ends with the most instrumentally conceived of Bach’s double-choir motets, BWV 226 Der Geist hilft unser Schwacheit auf (The Spirit Helpeth Our Infirmities). Interestingly, this is the only one for which original doubling parts for winds and strings have survived. It is also the only motet composed by Bach for which a specific purpose is known - the funeral service of JH Ernesti, the rector of the Thomasschule in Leipzig.

We then travel to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and open the programme with BWV 96 Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottessohn (Lord Christ, the only Son of God). The cantata is closely connected to a 200-year-old hymn by Elisabeth Cruciger, a poet who came from an emigrant aristocratic Polish family.

Next comes BWV 169 Gott soll allein mein Herze haben (God alone shall have my heart), the last and considered by many to be the most consistently beautiful of Bach’s Cantatas for solo alto. This is then followed by the superb choral cantata BWV 116 Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ, first performed on 26 November 1724.

The choir then retreat to the very crucible where for the last twenty-seven years of his life Bach worked. They form a horseshow around his final resting place and sing a cappella what legend has identified as Bach’s very last piece, BWV 668 Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit, the so-called Deathbed Chorale.

Click CD to play soundbites.

SDG 159 Volume 9 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the for the Seventeenth Sunday
after Trinity

BWV 148 - Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens
BWV 114 - Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost
BWV 47 - Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden
BWV 226 - Motet: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf

(recorded: Allhelgonakyrkan, Lund)

Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Frances Bourne
Robin Tyson | Charles Humphries
Mark Padmore | Stephen Loges

Cantatas for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 96 - Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottessohn
BWV 169 - Gott soll allein mein Herze haben
BWV 116 - Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ
BWV 668 - Chorale: Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit

(recorded: Thomaskirche, Leipzig)

Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Nathalie Stutzmann
Christoph Genz | Gotthold Schwarz

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

Click CDs to play soundbites.

SDG 162 Volume 13 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the for the First Sunday in Advent

BWV 61 - Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland I
BWV 62 - Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland II
BWV 36 - Schwingt freudig euch empor

(recorded: St. Maria im Kapitol, Köln)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | William Towers
Jan Kabow | Dietrich Henschel

Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday in Advent

BWV 70 - Wachet! betet! betet! wachet!
BWV 132 - Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn!
BWV 147 - Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben

(recorded: Michaeliskirche, Lüneburg)

Soloists: Brigitte Geller | Michael Chance
Jan Kabow | Dietrich Henschel

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

The illustrious, multi-award winning Bach Cantatas series on SDG continues with volume 13 in the series. It features Cantatas for the first and fourth Sunday in Advent and was recorded live in December 2000.

We join John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on their Bach Cantata pilgrimage for a concert of Bach’s Advent cantatas, performed in the largest of the Romanesque churches in Cologne, St. Maria im Kapitol (St. Mary in the Capital).

Besides the festive allure they have in common, all three of Bach’s surviving cantatas for Advent (BWV 61, 62 and 36) display a sense of excitement at the onset of the Advent season. This is a time of anticipation and waiting, and an opportunity for congregations to turn away from all those self-absorbed feelings of guilt, fear, damnation and hellfire that dominated the final Sunday of the Trinity season.

This sense of having at last turned a corner is summed up in the radiantly benign accompagnato for soprano and alto ‘Wir ehren diese Herrlickkeit’, the penultimate movement of BWV 62 Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland II (Come now, Saviour of the Gentiles). The successive stages of Advent and the different perspectives these give on Jesus’ incarnation are perhaps most clearly marked in Bach’s early version of BWV 61 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland I .

The programme ends with BWV 36 Schwingt freudig euch empor (Soar joyfully aloft), a large-scale work divided into two parts, the first of which would have been performed before the sermon, the second afterwards. The opening chorus, as befits the season, is joyous, and is described by Gardiner as a spiritual madrigal - “capricious, light-textured and deeply satisfying”.

The final European leg of the year-long pilgrimage takes us to the atmospheric Michaeliskirche in Lüneburg where we join John Eliot and his musical forces in a concert of three of Bach’s most gripping church cantatas.

The programme begins with BWV 70 Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (Watch! pray! pray! watch!) in the musical form in which this cantatas has survived - the expansion that Bach made for performance in Leipzig on 21 November 1723 of the shorter, six-movement Advent piece composed seven years earlier in Weimar (BWV70a), of which only three upper parts survive.

We then hear one of Bach’s earliest cantatas, BWV 132 Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn! (Prepare the way, prepare the path), an intimate work scored for four voices, oboe, bassoon, strings and continuo consisting of two recitatives, three arias and a final chorale.

The concert ends with BWV 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth, Deeds and Life), the best known of Bach’s reworkings of an earlier Weimar cantata. The pre-Christmas excitement is captured in the glorious opening chorus by the fanfare-like opening section for orchestra.

Click CDs to play soundbites.

SDG 165 Volume 2 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Trinity

BWV 2 - Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein
BWV 10 - Meine Seel erhebt den Herren
BWV 76 - Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes

Heinrich Schütz 1585-1672

SWV 386 - Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes

(recorded: Basilique Saint-Denis, Paris)

Soloists: Lisa Larsson | Daniel Taylor
James Gilchrist | Stephen Varcoe

Cantatas for the Third Sunday after Trinity

BWV 21 - Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis
BWV 135 - Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder

BWV 1044 - Concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord

(recorded: the Fraumünster, Zürich)

Soloists: Katharine Fuge | Robin Tyson
Vernon Kirk | Jonathan Brown

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

John Eliot Gardiner's multi award-winning label SDG begins 2010 with volume 2 in its Bach Cantata series, featuring Cantatas for the second and third Sunday after Trinity, recorded live in July 2000.

Performing to an audience of more than 1200, we join Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists at the halfway point of their Bach Cantata pilgrimage for a concert in one of the great architectural landmarks of Catholic Europe, the Basilisque Saint-Denis (Basilica Cathedral of Saint Denis).

Featuring internationally acclaimed soloists including James Gilchrist, Lisa Larsson, Daniel Taylor and Stephen Varcoe, the programme opens with BWV 2 Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from Heaven), a chorale cantata based upon Martin Luther's German hymn adaptation of Psalm 12. The psalm describes how easily man is led astray by heresy and Bach deals with such grim subject matter by resorting to composing in an archaic motet style. The result is austere beauty and has the engrossing quality of ritualised worship.

There then follows BWV 10 Meine Sell erhebt den Herren (My soul doth magnify the Lord), the fifth work in Bach's second Leipzig cantata cycle and set to the text of the German Magnificat. The chorale is predominantly joyful therefore and this is beautifully exemplified in the grand, rousing chorus that opens the first movement.

Schütz's superb motet Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (The heavens are telling of God in glory) follows. Published in 1648 and dedicated to the choir of St Thomas in Leipzig, this is a motet that John Eliot remembers fondly, since it is a work he has known since he was six and he can still hear his father's ringing tenor declaiming its powerful text.

The concert ends with Bach's prodigious cantata, BWV 76 Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, a lengthy and complex bipartite cantata, comprising fourteen movements and divided into two equal parts.

We then head to Zürich to hear John Eliot and his Monteverdi forces perform within the stunning Fraumünster Kirche, distinctive for its slender, blue spire.

They open with the two-part Weimar Cantata BWV 21 Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I had much affliction), considered to be '...one of the most extraordinary and inspired of Bach's vocal works', as stated by John Eliot Gardiner in his booklet note. There then follows BWV 135 Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (O, Lord, I poor sinner). This is superb music and Bach concludes with a rousing 'Glory to God', to the Passion chorale by Cyriakus Schneegaß (1597).

With only two cantatas for this Sunday in existence, the concert ends with Bach's so-called Triple Concerto, BWV 1044 (Concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord). Despite its similarity to Brandenburg Concerto No.5, it seems to inhabit a different stylistic milieu to that of Bach's other concerti - one much close to that of his eldest sons.

Click CDs to play soundbites.

SDG 168 Volume 11 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

BWV 162 - Ach! ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe
BWV 49 - Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen
BWV 180 - Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele

(recorded: Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, Genova)

Soloists: Magdalena Kožená | Sara Mingardo
Christoph Genz | Peter Harvey

Cantatas for the Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

BWV 109 - Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben!
BWV 38 - Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir
BWV 98 - Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan I
BWV 188 - Ich habe meine Zuversicht

(recorded: Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | William Towers
Paul Agnew | Gotthold Schwarz

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

The Bach Cantatas Series on the award-winning SDG label continues with volume 11, featuring Cantatas for the twentieth and twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, recorded live in November 2000.

Leaving behind the austerity of Wittenberg with its fiery celebrations of the Reformation festival, John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists head to Italy to give two concerts, one in the cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa and one the following day in the basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.

We join John Eliot and his forces for the first of these two concerts - a performance of three little-known secular-imaged cantatas in the stunning Gothic cathedral of San Lorenzo. The soloists are internationally acclaimed and include Magdalena Kožená, Sara Mingardo, Christoph Genz and Peter Harvey.

The concert opens with the solemn BWV 162 Ach! ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe (Ah! I see, now, that I have gone to the feast), a cantata brought to life by Salomo Franck's strongly worded libretto. Bach thrives upon Franck's love of poetic compounds and polar opposites. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the opening bass aria where we get references to life and death, rays of heaven and fires of hell.

There then follows BWV 49 Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen (I go and seek with longing), a dialogue cantata dating from 1726 which is geared towards creating an atmosphere depicting the beauty of the soul. In his booklet notes, Gardiner states that the best movement is the fourth, an aria for soprano with oboe d'amore and violoncello piccolo, which he believes to be “a kind of early version of Bernstein's 'I feel pretty.' ”

The concert ends with the very beautiful, BWV 180 Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (Deck yourself, my soul, with gladness). The final chorale is a model of its kind, drawing all the strands of previous movements together - the themes of the heavenly wedding feast, food for the soul and union with God.

We then travel back to London for a concert in the Old Royal Navel College Chapel, Greenwich, a perfect architectural and acoustic setting. Bach composed four outstanding works for this Sunday, marvellously contrasted and subtly differentiated by mood and instrumentation.

The earliest of these, BWV 109 Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben! (Lord, I believe, help Thou mie unbelief), opens the concert. The wonderful opening chorus, a setting of words from St Mark's gospel, emphasises the tension between belief and scepticism in such personal terms that one wonders whether it mirrors Bach's own private struggles of faith.

This theme of distress and the yearning for forgiveness continues in BWV 38 Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (Out of deep distress I cry to you) where Bach, in the final chorus, emphasises this mood by giving all voices full orchestral doubling, including the rare usage of four trombones! After all that accumulated intensity, BWV 98 Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, dating from November 1726, is exceptionally genial.

Last in the programme comes BWV 188 Ich habe meine Zuversicht, of 1728/9. In Bach's harmonisation it exudes confidence, trust and power.

Click CDs to play soundbites.

SDG 171 Volume 12 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity

BWV 55 - Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht
BWV 89 - Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim?
BWV 115 - Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit
BWV 60 - O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort II

(recorded: All Saints, Tooting, London)

Soloists: Joanne Lunn | Robin Tyson
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

Cantatas for the Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity

BWV 139 - Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott
BWV 163 - Nur jedem das Seine!
BWV 52 - Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht!
BWV 140 - Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme

(recorded: Winchester Cathedral)

Soloists: Gillian Keith | Susan Hamilton
Hilary Summers | William Kendall | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

SDG is delighted to release Volume 12 - Cantatas for the twenty-second and twenty-third Sundays after trinity.

John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists performed both of these programmes in England: at All Saints church in Tooting and at Winchester Cathedral, in November 2000.

The soloists include James Gilchrist, Peter Harvey and Joanne Lunn.

The highlight of this album is Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (“Sleepers, wake”) - one of Bach’s best known cantatas, and one that has long been part of the Monteverdi Choir’s repertoire. It is described as “a cantata without weaknesses, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order”.

Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht (“I, wretched man, I slave to sin”) is Bach’s only cantata for solo tenor still in existence. It is sung movingly by James Gilchrist.

Of three cantatas on the parable of the unjust steward (BWV 55, 89, 115), Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit (“Prepare yourself, my soul”) is considered to stand out for its subtle instrumental writing and spellbinding arias, which evoke the yearning of the soul for divine mercy.

The recording in Tooting (CD1) is the only one in the whole series that wasn’t recorded live: the original concert took place in Eton chapel, right under the Heathrow airport flight path, so we had to try and recreate the same conditions in a quieter place.

This album is packaged with a separate index sheet of the Cantata series.

Click CDs to play soundbites.

SDG 174 Volume 18 (2 cds) contains:

Cantatas for Christmas Day

BWV 63 - Christen, ätzet diesen Tag
BWV 191 - Gloria in excelsis Deo

(recorded: Herderkirche, Weimar)

Soloists: Claron McFadden | Bernarda Fink
Christopher Genz | Dietrich Henschel

Cantatas for the Feast of Epiphany

BWV 65 - Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen
BWV 123 - Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen

(recorded: Nikolaikirche, Leipzig)

Soloists: Magdalena Kožená | Sally Bruce-Payne
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

Cantatas for the First Sunday after Epiphany

BWV 154 - Mein liebster Jesus ist verloren
BWV 124 - Meinen Jesum lass ich nicht
BWV 32 - Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen

(recorded: Hauptikirche St Jakobi, Hamburg)

Soloists: Claron McFadden | Michael Chance
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey

The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner

Click here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.

Click here for the English sleeve notes.

SDG174 is the much awaited last volume of the Bach Cantatas Pilgrimage, one of the most talked about musical events of the last decade.

This is an anthology of the Christmas period, combining cantatas for Christmas Day and the Epiphany.

It features ten acclaimed soloists, including Magdalena Kožená, Bernarda Fink, Michael Chance, James Gilchrist and Christopher Genz.

The album opens with Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (“Christians, engrave this Day”), which was performed on Christmas Day 1999 to launch the year-long pilgrimage. This is one of Bach’s best known cantatas. The accompagnato recit was sung by Bernarda Fink to great acclaim.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo, the song of the angels at the birth of baby Jesus, is best known as the Gloria in the B Minor Mass.

Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen (“All they from Sheba shall come”) describes the procession of the three magi. Bach conveys the majesty of the scene by using high horns, and the recorders and oboes da caccia create an Eastern-like atmosphere.

The cantatas on this album display a great variety of dramatic expression. Both Mein Liebster Jesus ist verloren (“My dearest Jesus is lost”) and Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (“Beloved Jesus, my Desire”) tell the same story, but in a different style, expressing different emotions.

This album was recorded at Weimar’s Herderkirche, Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche and Hamburg’s Hauptikirche St Jakobi.

SDG174 is packaged with a separate index sheet of the Cantata series.

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