JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH – CANTATAS FOR THE COMPLETE LITURGICAL YEAR, VOL. 2
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Code: ACCENT SACD 25302 Price: $24.25 |
| Cantata BWV 177 "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" – 4th Sunday after Trinity; Cantata BWV 93 "Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten" – 5th Sunday after Trinity; Cantata BWV 135 "Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder" – 3rd Sunday after Trinity La Petite Bande/Sigiswald Kuijken For several years, we have chosen to perform the vocal works of J. S. Bach (Cantatas, Motets, Passions etc.) with vocal forces of one singer to a part, and not with a "choir" in the usual sense. Indeed, some well founded musicological studies, started nearly a quarter of a century ago by Joshua Rifkin, demonstrated that Bach – as well as his contemporaries – was used to composing his "modern" music for performance by such a vocal quartet. So, in the Cantatas, Passions, Magnificat and Masses, these "performers" would have to sing everything that appeared in the score: the recitatives, the arias, the chorales and the ensembles (choruses). Thus the works for double choir (certain Motets, the St. Matthew Passion) had to have eight singers. This corresponds exactly with Bach's kind of writing. Even if there exist nowadays choirs of reduced size, which can perfectly overcome the technical difficulties posed by Bach's scores, it seems to me more and more that the practice of tripling and quadrupling the vocal forces in Bach's works is comparable to playing a Haydn quartet with 16 musicians. Certainly "realizable", but less appropriate to the actual essence of the work's writing. In the version with "soloists", the whole can remain transparent, and yet "inhabited" by the individual contributions of the four singers. A certain "madrigalism" can be detected, which hardly corresponds to a "choral" performance. The instrumental forces are also those suggested by Bach, and are those found every time in the original material, which comes down to us. Needless to say, the performance without a "conductor", in the "modern" sense, is vital from this point of view, and thus the creation of the moment becomes more than ever a shared and essential act by all the participants. The program presented here is part of a vast project, spread over many years. Indeed, we have undertaken the realization of a complete liturgical year of Cantatas. This will result in about 20 CDs, bringing together the Cantatas for every Sunday and the great Festivals of the liturgical year. We will give them in groups of three or four Cantatas, wherever possible in the appropriate period of the year. - Sigiswald, 15 December 2005 |
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