FreeFreight Is Available. Click for Details
Album Summary
Performers
Carolyn Sampson (Soprano)- Peter Kooij (Bass)
- Gerd Türk (Tenor)
Notes & Reviews:
The four cantatas on this recording come from 1726-1727, Bach's fourth year of service at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. During this time Bach showed a preference for solo cantatas, entrusting the text to a single solo voice. Three of the cantatas on this recording are of this type, while the fourth (BWV58) is scored for two voices. While Volume 37 in this series focused on the solo cantatas for alto, as performed by counter-tenor Robin Blaze, this volume gives equal space to three other soloists familiar to followers of the series: Peter Kooij, Carolyn Sampson, and Gerd Turk, They are accompanied by the eminent ensemble Bach Collegium Japan, and led by the vision of Masaaki Suzuki.
The four cantatas on this recording come from 1726-1727, Bach's fourth year of service at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. During this time Bach showed a preference for solo cantatas, entrusting the text to a single solo voice. Three of these cantatas are of this type, while the fourth (BWV58) is scored for two voices.
"A profound 'Ich habe genug' and exquisite singing from Sampson." - Gramophone
"Easily the best-known piece here is Ich habe genug (BWV 82). Peter Kooij's tender, yearning account is more modestly stated than versions by his more extrovert rivals. Gerd Türk, assisted by Suzuki's beautifully shaped phrasing, makes a stronger case for the austere Ich armer Mensch (BWV 55) than any rival version that comes to mind." - BBC Music Magazine
"As the honeymoon period of Bach's appointment began to wear off, two or three years after his arrival in Leipzig, the composer's cantatas became less central to his creative life. More works by other composers began to appear in the church calendar as energy was increasingly focused towards new large-scale projects, of which the St Matthew Passion was the most pressing at the time these four solo cantatas were composed.
Smaller resources may also suggest a shortage of adequate forces in Leipzig in the months between late 1726 and early 1727 but there is no let-up in quality. This latest Bach Collegium volume includes one of the most celebrated of all bass-baritone works, Ich habe genug, in a reading of profoundly felt utterance by the experienced Peter Kooij. This is an even and fluent version, if in 'Schlummert ein' a touch too objective and laid-back. Yet the world-weariness of this great slumber aria is beautifully caught by Masaaki Suzuki in both the textural sensibility and rhythmic nuance of the ensemble.
Unforced and natural, this is a reading reminding us of the simplicity of the work's unalloyed beauty.
Carolyn Sampson grows in stature as a Bachian in her exquisite musical judgement and technical assurance, not least in the outstanding tuning and allure of 'Ich halt es mit lieben Gott' (from Falsche Welt, No 52, which includes a rather sleepy performance of its Sinfonia, from the earliest version of Brandenburg No 1). Ich armerMensch is the only extant solo tenor cantata, a piece for whom man's inherent sinfulness is prevalent in supplicatory chromaticism, but hampered here by a tired-sounding Gerd Türk and some uncharacteristically sour intonation from the flautist, Liliko Maeda.
Sampson and Kooij share the delights of No 58, Ach Gott, wie manches, a symmetrical and passionately conceived work framed by splendid duets in which the bass paraphrases the soprano chorale (the symbol of Soul and God) - transformed from a tortured chaconne in a cathartic concerto romp. This is a fine close to another largely successful addition to this distinguished series." - The Gramophone Classical Music Guide
Reviews
There are currently no reviews, be the first one!Also Purchased
 |
 |
Works Details
Bach, Johann Sebastian : Falsche Welt, dir trau' ich nicht, BWV 52 - Performers: Gerd Türk (Tenor); Carolyn Sampson (Soprano); Peter Kooij (Bass)
- Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki
- Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan
- Period Time: Baroque
- Form: Cantata/Oratorio
- Written: 1726
- Studio/Live: Studio
