Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - Johann Sebastian Bach: Famous Cantatas Vol. 2 (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 825 Mb | Total time: 2h58'46 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | # HML 5908363.65 | Recorded: 1988, 2000, 2005
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 825 Mb | Total time: 2h58'46 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | # HML 5908363.65 | Recorded: 1988, 2000, 2005
This program also makes a perfect introduction to the world of the cantatas in general for anyone who loves Bach's instrumental music or larger vocal works (like the B minor Mass), but who has been hesitating before taking the plunge into the vast sea of his cantata production. Why? Simple: two of these pieces contain music found elsewhere in Bach's output. For example, the first chorus of BWV 120 became the concluding number (Et expecto) of the B minor Mass "Credo". BWV 29 opens with an almost shockingly brilliant arrangement (as an organ concerto) of the opening movement of the E major violin partita, followed by the chorus that appears in the B minor Mass as both the "Gratias" and the "Dona Nobis Pacem" (the German original means exactly the same thing as the Gratias: "We thank thee," making the adaptation entirely apropos). All three cantatas feature brilliant writing for trumpets (four of them in BWV 119) and drums, and were written for civic ceremonies in Leipzig. And if the words are often less than inspiring to us now, no one can argue that Bach didn't rise to the occasion musically.