Gramophone
SDG156 - Bach Cantatas vol 4 (7 Sep 2009)
Bach Cantatas SDG156 Recorded live at St Gumbertus, Ansbach, on July 30, 2000, St
Mary’s, Haddington, on August 5 & 6, 2000 Strong
interpretations, with fine choral work in this set of cantatas for Trinity. As the longest season in the
liturgical calendar, Trinity is represented by the largest corpus from within
Bach’s cantata oeuvre, covering a remarkable range of gospel and
epistle-inspired texts for Bach to set – from victory over death and
restoration of faith over doubt, to God’s power to relieve the hungry. High
summer in 2000 saw the pilgrimage move back and forth between The first
programme, from the wonderfully named St Gumbertus in the Franconian town, is
linked together by two of Bach’s finest “the glass is completely empty” arias
from BMV9 and BMV170 respectively: the grim tenor aria “Wir waren schon zu tief
gesunken” is presented with typical rhetorical insight by James Gilchrist,
while “Wie jammern” from the celebrated solo-alto cantata Vergnügte Ruh presents the insidious wiles of the devil with
breathtaking imagery. Michael Chance gives a compellingly theatrical
performance whose “liveness” brings added colour and risk, even if pitching is
occasionally variable. Sir John
Eliot Gardiner brings great sensitivity to the remaining movements of BMV9
(with its light and distinctly mature interweaving flute and oboe d’amore
lines), especially the spacious geniality of the opening chorus and the
ingenious duet “Herr, du siehst”. This is a cantata written in the early 1730s
which Bach interpolated to fill an empty gap in his second cycle of 1724-25 –
as a form of good housekeeping. The
Haddington concert conveys an especially cohesive sense of gentleness,
character and intimacy, largely unified by the nature and high quality of the
opening movements. The languid exhortation “not to fret” in Ärgre dich (BMV186) is expressive in its
soft-grained sympathetic gaze; it is given an appropriately introverted reading
by the full ensemble, as Katharine Fuge and Richard Wyn Roberts exclaim with
suitable candour in their duet-gigue on the “O soul, be true”. No less
penetrating is Gardiner’s account of BMV107 (complementing Suzuki’s fine but
studio-bound performance in Vol 23), but the pick of the crop – certainly in
choral terms – is the sensational and woefully little-known Es wartet, BMV187, whose opening canvas
is strikingly extensive. Not all the solo contributions here are of equal merit
in this second disc. One could quibble, too, over some over-exaggerated
articulation, but overall the prime colours of these great pieces are undimmed,
glowing with customary zeal. Jonathan
Freeman-Attwood
))
