The Observer

SDG150 - Bach Cantatas Vol 17 (17 Nov 2008)

Bach Cantatas for New Year's Day and the Sunday after New Year The Monteverdi Choir, The English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner (SDG150 – 2 CDs)

It is almost eight years since John Eliot Gardiner completed his cantata pilgrimage but those recordings continue to bear delicious fruit. This latest (volume 17) marks the opening of the Millennium with the modest Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele , which is immediately overshadowed by the glorious exultation of Jesu, nun sei gepreiset . The mood of celebration switches abruptly to pleas for salvation in the cantatas for the Sunday after New Year, with much soul-searching from exquisite tenor James Gilchrist

www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/16/mozart-bach-brahms-review