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Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)

Posted By: Designol
Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)
Iestyn Davies, countertenor; Arcangelo; Jonathan Cohen, conductor

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 341 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 154 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical, Vocal | Label: Hyperion | # CDA68111 | Time: 01:04:51

Ich habe genug is a timeless, transcendental masterpiece: a profound expression of Christian faith at the very end of life. It demands artistry of a special order, and Iestyn Davies now joins the likes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the work’s distinguished discography. The couplings are equally ravishing performances of two other great solo cantatas, while the two orchestral sinfonias which complete the album will prove refreshingly familiar.

Director/harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen and his elite period ensemble Arcangelo have shaped this engrossing disc, of three Bach cantatas and two instrumental Sinfonias, around the British countertenor Iestyn Davies. Two of the cantatas (BWV 170, Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust, with its tender, lullaby-like opening, and BWV 54, Widerstehe doch der Sünde, a spicy, energetic challenge to the devil and all his works) were written for alto voice. The best known of the three, BWV 82, Ich habe genug, was originally for bass voice, reworked for soprano. Davies’s singular gifts of open-hearted expression, reined in to perfection and with no excess or indulgence, are expertly balanced by Arcangelo’s prominent solo musicians. Early in the year, a favourite disc already.

Review by Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian

Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)

The question is not if but when a distinguished countertenor decides to record the Bach solo alto cantatas. The catalogue offers a remarkable range of individual vocal timbres which seem to influence interpretative parameters to a startling degree. One thinks of Alfred Deller’s small, floating lines unveiling exquisite intimations in Cantatas Nos 54 and 170 (with the young Leonhardt and Harnoncourt and their future wives) testing the historical waters in the early 1950s (Vanguard). At the other extreme, Andreas Scholl projects his honeyed and flexible instrument with richly uncompromising projection (Harmonia Mundi, 5/98).

Iestyn Davies falls somewhere in between the two and yet he is no less distinctive in personality and musical ambition. Jonathan Cohen’s invigorating direction of the top notch Arcangelo and Davies’s extraordinarily questing approach make for a happy balance between abstract delight and rhetorical flair. For example, in the centrepiece of No 170, ‘Wie jammern’—a world turned upside down by Satan—disorientation is conveyed more by a plague-like itchiness than by the tendency to over-emphasise the imagery. There are a few unsettled moments in No 170 and there have been more close-knit readings between singer and obbligato organ, but the crystalline character here is original and affecting.

Cantata No 54 sits within the small surviving group of Weimar cantatas in which the voice, emblematically at least, sits as primus inter pares in the motet tradition of Bach’s late-17th-century forebears. Davies and Cohen give little quarter to emotional indulgence, as can so often be the case. What ensues is a highly refined essay of beautifully articulated singing and playing; the forward-leaning tempo never appears frenetic, with the opening movement as resolute as Bach clearly intends.

The least well-known alto cantata, No 35, usually makes up the trio but Davies forsakes this and plumps for Ich habe genug. If ostensibly a celebrated bass cantata (which the composer reworked for soprano and flute), the transition to alto works astonishingly well, but only because the soloist is so exceptionally accomplished. ‘Schlummert ein’ with single strings is deeply moving, framed by the supple and poetic oboe-playing of Katharina Spreckelsen.

Two ruddy sinfonias—reworkings of the Brandenburgs—provide agreeably colourful and vivacious interludes. Yet the dominant virtue in this fine collaboration between the outstanding Davies and Arcangelo lies in an unsentimental perspicacity, reassuring in its intelligence and deep sensitivity.

Review by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Gramophone

Bach's solo cantatas for higher voices were not written for castrati nor, for the most part, for female singers, but rather for boys on the cusp of puberty. Some of them, to judge from solo cantatas like those performed here by English countertenor Iestyn Davies, were apparently singers of considerable talent: all these works demand wide vocal ranges and the ability to produce a good deal of power at both ends of the range. Ich habe genug, BWV 82, is one of Bach's most famous cantatas, with its half-in-love-with-easeful-death theme ("I rejoice at my death," runs the final aria). Bach apparently valued the work himself, making soprano and alto versions of the original bass vocal line. The delicious equation of sleep and death in "Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen" makes a good place to start sampling: Davies' voice is hard to match for sheer tonal beauty, and he delivers it here as the vocal line drops to the bottom of the alto's range. His gentle, lyrical style, standing in contrast to the more abstract sound of Andreas Scholl in this repertory, is beautifully matched by the historical-instrument ensemble Arcangelo under Jonathan Cohen, with a purring organ continuo, and the whole thing finds an ideal acoustic home in London's St-Jude-on-the-Hill church. A very lovely recording of Bach solo cantatas.

Review by James Manheim, Allmusic.com

Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)



Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)



Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)



Tracklist:

Vergnügte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170
01. 1. Vergnügte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust (6:24)
02. 2. Die Welt, das Sündenhaus (1:13)
03. 3. Wie jammern mich doch (7:57)
04. 4. Wer sollte sich demnach (1:06)
05. 5. Mir ekelt mehr zu leben (5:15)

06. Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht!, BWV 52 - 1. Sinfonia (4:04)

Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54
07. 1. Widerstehe doch der Sünde (6:37)
08. 2. Die Art verruchter Sünden (1:09)
09. 3. Wer Sünde tut (3:01)

10. Sinfonia (No 1 of Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte, BWV 174) (5:51)

Ich habe genug, BWV 82
11. 1. Ich habe genug (7:01)
12. 2. Ich habe genug (1:08)
13. 3. Schlummert ein (9:50)
14. 4. Mein Gott! (0:44)
15. 5. Ich freue mich (3:31)


Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 18. April 2017, 21:49

Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen / Bach - Cantatas 54, 82 & 170

Used drive : TSSTcorpCD/DVDW SH-S182M Adapter: 1 ID: 1

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Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
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Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%


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==== Log checksum 67B0925094C490D14D7B92525EBC4A12CE7B4F29AFB9C19D712AAD2B4C38967F ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-04-24 00:16:25

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen / Bach - Cantatas 54, 82 & 170
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR13 -0.28 dB -16.92 dB 4:04 06-Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht!, BWV 52 - 1. Sinfonia
DR13 -1.44 dB -18.39 dB 5:51 10-Ich liebe den Hцcösten, BWV 174 - 1. Sinfonia
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 2
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 723 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen / Bach - Cantatas 54, 82 & 170
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -3.67 dB -18.82 dB 6:24 01-Vergnügte Ruh', BWV 170 - 1. Vergnügte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust
DR12 -4.84 dB -21.14 dB 1:13 02-Vergnügte Ruh', BWV 170 - 2. Die Welt, das Sündenhaus
DR13 -4.74 dB -22.07 dB 7:57 03-Vergnügte Ruh', BWV 170 - 3. Wie jammern mich doch
DR12 -3.42 dB -18.91 dB 1:06 04-Vergnügte Ruh', BWV 170 - 4. Wer sollte sich demnach
DR13 -0.54 dB -18.92 dB 5:15 05-Vergnügte Ruh', BWV 170 - 5. Mir ekelt mehr zu leben
DR14 -3.02 dB -21.00 dB 6:37 07-Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54 - 1. Widerstehe doch der Sünde
DR14 -3.41 dB -23.02 dB 1:09 08-Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54 - 2. Die Art verruchter Sünden
DR13 -2.34 dB -19.65 dB 3:01 09-Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54 - 3. Wer Sünde tut
DR13 -0.67 dB -17.96 dB 7:01 11-Ich habe genug, BWV 82 - 1. Ich habe genug
DR12 -4.01 dB -20.24 dB 1:08 12-Ich habe genug, BWV 82 - 2. Ich habe genug
DR13 -1.71 dB -19.74 dB 9:50 13-Ich habe genug, BWV 82 - 3. Schlummert ein
DR11 -4.68 dB -20.26 dB 0:44 14-Ich habe genug, BWV 82 - 4. Mein Gott!
DR12 -2.73 dB -18.43 dB 3:31 15-Ich habe genug, BWV 82 - 5. Ich freue mich
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 13
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 723 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2017)

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