Gramophone
SDG147 - Bach Cantatas Vol 5 (27 Nov 2008)
Increasingly excelling performances of some of Bach’s finest mature cantatas:
Our Pilgrimage travels to Rendsburg and Braunschweig for a selection form Bach’s “golden years” of vocal writing, 1723-25. The immediacy of the sound in the former seems almost ideal for the intensity of Wo Gott der Herr, which thrusts us into an unyielding paranoia about God’s indifference to our plight. Gardiner summons as impressive, generative agitation that illuminates the imagery of shipwreck in the bass aria, as well as the tenor aria with its declamatory “Schweig, schweig” (Be silent) which, despite its final consolation, reeks of dissembling. Brindley Sherratt’s arioso, “Es warden viele”, is brilliantly blustery and single-minded.
The short journey to the resonant Braunschweig involves a new solo team and performances which are altogether more transporting. Of one reveres the “Qui tollis” from the B minor Mass, I wonder whether the opening of Schauet doch in its original context of dissolute lamentation doesn’t say even more? Certainly, Gardiner uses it brilliantly to take off with one of Bach’s most jarring fugal exegese. Equally breathtaking is the traumatic opening chorus, on Luther’s hymn “Vater unser”, of BWV101 with its almost flagellatory appoggiaturas to depict the breaking of Satan’s hold.
In BWV46 and BWV102 (with another sensational opening chorus), the arias and obbligato contributions are remarkable. Gardiner calls BWV102’s “Dein Wetter” on of Bach’s rare “tsunami” arias: bass Gotthold Schwarz carries this image ideally, accompanied by the fine trumpet-playing of Gabriele Cassone.
If not flawless compared to the studio series, this Pilgrimage encourages a heart-warming depth of engagement with the music. We can also endorse Gardiner’s summary that these works are more that doctrinal dissertations but creations of “overwhelming poetic transformative force”
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Our Pilgrimage travels to Rendsburg and Braunschweig for a selection form Bach’s “golden years” of vocal writing, 1723-25. The immediacy of the sound in the former seems almost ideal for the intensity of Wo Gott der Herr, which thrusts us into an unyielding paranoia about God’s indifference to our plight. Gardiner summons as impressive, generative agitation that illuminates the imagery of shipwreck in the bass aria, as well as the tenor aria with its declamatory “Schweig, schweig” (Be silent) which, despite its final consolation, reeks of dissembling. Brindley Sherratt’s arioso, “Es warden viele”, is brilliantly blustery and single-minded.
The short journey to the resonant Braunschweig involves a new solo team and performances which are altogether more transporting. Of one reveres the “Qui tollis” from the B minor Mass, I wonder whether the opening of Schauet doch in its original context of dissolute lamentation doesn’t say even more? Certainly, Gardiner uses it brilliantly to take off with one of Bach’s most jarring fugal exegese. Equally breathtaking is the traumatic opening chorus, on Luther’s hymn “Vater unser”, of BWV101 with its almost flagellatory appoggiaturas to depict the breaking of Satan’s hold.
In BWV46 and BWV102 (with another sensational opening chorus), the arias and obbligato contributions are remarkable. Gardiner calls BWV102’s “Dein Wetter” on of Bach’s rare “tsunami” arias: bass Gotthold Schwarz carries this image ideally, accompanied by the fine trumpet-playing of Gabriele Cassone.
If not flawless compared to the studio series, this Pilgrimage encourages a heart-warming depth of engagement with the music. We can also endorse Gardiner’s summary that these works are more that doctrinal dissertations but creations of “overwhelming poetic transformative force”
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
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