Bach Cantatas Gardiner

Beautiful setChoosing Gardiner over other complete editions such as Suzuki, Koopman, Harnoncourt or Rilling certainly is a matter of preference which I will not comment on.The box itself is a beautiful product: the individual CDs come in paperback double-sleeves, so that the respective track listing is on the inside of the sleeve. I find this a great alternative to having a large booklet with all the trackless combined. Here, you can just take out a sleeve and see the track list without having to go through a large booklet that won’t stay flat open. As a result, the booklet is quite minimal, but still useful.It is of course a negative aspect that the original introductory booklet texts are only supplied as PDF files, but compromises have to be made.Overall, I think this box is a good value for money if you’re looking into complete cantata boxes (also considering that Suzuki is virtually sold out).I especially love the cover photographs on the CD sleeves, compared to the Suzuki and Koopman sets, these are so much better.Overall, if you’re in the market for a complete (sacred) cantata box, this is a good choice if Gardiner appeals to your personal taste.

Un pélerinage mémorableLE PRODUIT :Beau coffret sobre, compact et esthétique. Les pochettes des disques sont illustrées chacune d’une superbe photo de Steve McCurry. Commentaires relatifs à chaque cantate et les textes sur un CD (en anglais et allemand). Livraison rapide, emballage protégeant bien le coffret. Prix de vente modique.L’OEUVRE :Cette œuvre unique et trop peu connue que sont les cantates de J.-S. Bach recèle des trésors qui ne demandent qu’à être découverts. La créativité et le génie du Cantor ne cessent de nous étonner : musique liée étroitement aux textes, choix judicieux des instrumentations, des voix et des tonalités, harmonisations très riches (jamais banales), mélodies qui touchent profondément, bref, de la très grande musique.L’INTERPRÉTATION :John Eliot Gardiner exige beaucoup de ses musiciens et chanteurs pour relever le défi de son pèlerinage avec un superbe résultat. Les interprétations sont limpides même avec des tempi parfois étourdissants. Tant le English Baroque Soloists que le Monteverdi Choir sont toujours à la hauteur des attentes, justes, précis, bien équilibrés. Les voix solistes varient au long du pèlerinage, ce qui apporte une belle diversité (malgré des inégalités).L’enregistrement “live” comporte des risques qui sont très bien assumés dans ce cas-ci. Malgré les changements hebdomadaires d’environnement et la présence des auditeurs, l’équipe de prise de son et de montage a réalisé un excellent travail avec un résultat qui dépasse les attentes (les miennes du moins).EN RÉSUMÉ :Sir Gardiner et son équipe ont réalisé une œuvre monumentale d’interprétation des cantates de Bach et c’est un privilège pour nous tous de pouvoir en profiter si facilement et à un coût plus que raisonnable.

(Too Much Info) On Why You Should Get ThisStated baldly: If you acquire only one recording of Bach’s church cantatas, this is the set to purchase. And for all you Bach freaks (like me) out there: Get this recording anyway, even if you were not planning on it.Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage demonstrates, among other things, just how far historically informed performance on period instruments has come in the past 30 or so years. This is most obvious when compared to the venerable, pioneering cycle jointly produced by Gustav Leonhardt and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Though this is not the proper forum to discuss how that project has, over the years, come to sound somewhat “dated”– and I’m sure Harnoncourt himself has newer things to say when it comes to Bach’s cantatas — I find that Gardiner’s broader range of tempi, expressive (some might argue over-expressive) use of dynamics, and imaginative variety of articulation certainly make his cycle more accessible, perhaps more amenable to early 21st-century ears.It’s ridiculous, really, to try and prove just how excellent Gardiner can be. Still, I’d like to mention a few favorites selected from 1208 tracks of music spread over 58 hours and 40 minutes. All are meltingly beautiful (though I should admit that I’ve always had a weakness for fine singers paired with fine oboists):”Ich habe genung,” the opening aria from BWV 82 (disc 8 track 6)”Es ist vollbracht,” the last aria from BWV 159 (disc 11 track 18)”Wo zwei und drei versammlet sind,” the first aria from BWV 42 (disc 15 track 17)Gardiner’s ensemble consistently projects a beguiling freshness behind their performances — could this be a function of their insanely swift turnover rate, rehearsing and recording a new set of cantatas every week for an entire year? Yet the potential for disaster was somehow averted, and the results never sound under-rehearsed or (even worse) over-planned.It’s already been noted elsewhere that this box set includes all of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage originally released by Soli Deo Gloria in 27 volumes, plus the Ascension cantatas and oratorio that were recently added as “volume 28” (and thus slightly out of liturgical sequence). More importantly, the four discs issued by DG Archiv before they bowed out of the project have been finally reinstated — a total of 14 cantatas that were excluded from SDG’s 28-volume series. (The cantatas in question were for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Purification, the Ninth Sunday after Trinity, and Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.)Therefore, the appearance of the entire, newly reconstituted cycle in this compact package makes this a better buy than the incomplete original set of 27 (no, 28) individual volumes. Note also that the discs are more logically ordered than the original volumes, appearing in strict chronological order. (And volume 28, recorded in 2012, has now been inserted in its proper liturgical position as disc 20.)Although one may object that the liner notes are no longer present, an additional CDR provides a separate file (or “booklet”) for every disc. These include all of the original introductory essays — Gardiner’s keenly observant journal entries, with Ruth Tatlow’s notes from the DG Archiv discs — with the cantata texts and translations. Unfortunately, all photos from SDG’s original notes, which always included a vignette of the church where each disc was recorded, are no longer present. Nonetheless, aside from the occasional interior shot — such as one of the stunning nave vaulting of Sherborne Abbey, or of the visually magnificent (if mechanically unreliable) Trost organ at Altenburg’s Schlosskirche — photos were never a major feature of SDG’s presentation.Of course, completists (like me) will want to know what Gardiner did not include in his cycle:1) Obviously, he omits cantatas that are too fragmentary or incomplete to realize in performance, such as BWV 197a (realized somehow for Masaaki Suzuki’s recently completed cycle on BIS), and BWV 193 (included in Ton Koopman’s cycle on his label, Antoine Marchand).2) Also ignored are the four inauguration cantatas for Leipzig: BWV 26, 69, 119 and 120. (However, Gardiner did include the inauguration cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 71.)3) The three known wedding cantatas are likewise not present: BWV 120a, 195, 197.4) Gardiner omits the two funeral cantatas, BWV 106 and 157. (However, he recently released the `Actus tragicus’ BWV 106 with the Easter oratorio.)5) Finally, one cantata for an unknown occasion, BWV 196, was also left out. (But note that Gardiner recorded all six of the others in this category, and BWV 150 actually appears twice.)From an aesthetic standpoint, the box set is presented in an attractive, pleasingly compact format. Collectors of SDG’s original volumes may have found the covers, featuring photo portraits by Steve McCurry, an odd match for sacred music by a German composer dead for more than 2 1/2 centuries. In time, McCurry’s portraits became oddly comforting, symbolizing the humanity one hopes to find in Bach’s music. Happily, this current set positively celebrates McCurry’s work: the original 28 portraits are now expanded to 56 (one for each disc) and the 28 colorful miniatures on the lid give an appealing, bejeweled look to this treasure chest of musical art.

Excellent Complete CantatasThe Gardiner cantatas come in an attractive cardboard box. Each CD is enclosed within that box in its own cardboard slipcase, with very attractive photographic portraits by Steve McMurray on the covers (a different portrait for each CD). The overall effect is of thoughtful beauty, but it’s marred a little by the ease with which the cardboard is damaged. Mine came with a ‘roller mark’ along the entire set, in the middle of the top border, which disappointed a little. In short, nice ‘set aesthetics’, marred a little by the choice of materials and the packing implementation.But we’re here for the music not the packaging, so what to say about that? First, let’s get factual. There are 187 different BWV numbers included: obviously, you get most of the BWV 1 to 227 series (the cantatas proper), but you also get 668, 1044 and 1048. You also get two recordings of BWV 150 (on CDs 15 and 21).What’s “missing”?BWV 15 – not by Bach at allBWV 29 – By BachBWV 41 – By BachBWV 53 – Probably not by Bach anywayBWV 106 – By BachBWV 118 – Not a cantata as such, reallyBWV 119 – By BachBWV 120 – By BachBWV 142 – Not by BachBWV 157 – By BachBWV 160 – Not by BachBWV 189 – Probably not by BachBWV 193 – By Bach, but incompleteBWV 201 – 224 – Secular CantatasSo there are about six genuine omissions, and other apparent ‘missings’ are down to the fact that the cantatas concerned are not by Bach, not wholly by Bach or by Bach but not intended for church performance. The omissions are, it seems to me, relatively trivial. I certainly wouldn’t mark the set down a whole star in consequence!Each of the cantatas that are present were recorded live, with recorded dress rehearsals being used to cover up any disasters or audience coughing fits. I think you would be hard-pressed to tell that audiences were present: I’ve yet to hear an intrusive cough, shuffle of feet or other intrusion. However, the performances definitely have that ‘live’ quality -a heightened intensity, a vibrancy that speaks of adrenaline!I have the Leusink and Suzuki cantata cycles to compare with, and Gardiner knocks the spots of Leusink, whose choir frequently sounds awful, with a tendency for the Sopranos to ‘hoot’ or ‘bloom’ excessively. Leusink’s soloists are also often sub-par. Suzuki and Gardiner are a more interesting comparison: I sometimes find Gardiner a bit plodding where Suzuki is exciting, but I often find Gardiner’s performances more consistent than Suzuki’s. In BWV 130, for example, Gardiner doesn’t sound much like he’s attending the war in heaven between Michael and Satan. A tea-dance might be more his thing. Suzuki, by comparison, is much punchier, zestier, faster… and much more satisfying as a result. That said, Suzuki’s tenors and basses in that particular performance are less prominent than the Gardiner equivalents, so the double fugue is much harder to hear properly. Overall, it’s difficult to choose between them!Another favourite of mine is BWV 127. Gardiner’s sound is much richer than Suzuki’s, partly because he has the choir sing the chorale tune in the first movement which everyone else just has played by the violins. It’s unorthodox, and I can’t decide if it’s the right thing to do or not… but the effect is undeniably lovely.Gardiner’s soloists sound very good: I’ve yet to hear a dud performance. Leusink’s bass, in particular, not infrequently sounds not up to the technical task, but none of Gardiner’s sound out of their depth.Suzuki’s and Gardiner’s orchestras sound about equally as good, in my view. I wouldn’t like to have to choose between them, anyway!The price of this set might seem a little on the high side, but that’s probably because we’re spoiled these days with dirt-cheap boxed sets everywhere you look. You’d have to be a real curmudgeon to begrudge paying about £3 per disk. Additionally, a lot of those ‘everything composer X wrote’ boxed sets tend to include performances from different performers at different times and of highly variable musical quality. This set, on the other hand, presents a coherent, cohesive and consistently-excellent vision of Bach’s cantatas.So, I’d unhesitatingly recommend it. Niggles about packaging aside, any reservations I may have about it are simply those you’d be bound to have when comparing 180+ performances of one impressive conductor with another. If you have the Suzuki, I’d still say get the Gardiner anyway: the differences in interpretation are interesting and enthralling, and will provide hours (weeks/months!) of interest. Meanwhile, Suzuki isn’t available (as far as I know) as an all-in-one boxed set, so you’re looking at spending up big to get his equivalent.Here, then, you get excellent performances, thoughtful and intelligent interpretation, fine musicianship… and all boxed up in one relatively cheap and highly convenient package. You can’t really go wrong here, I feel.

A unique collection of all the cantatas.An amazing musical achievement across 56 CDs! Well documented. To best understand the cantatas and their background I strongly recommend John Eliot Gardiner’s portrait of Bach in his “Music in the Castle of Heaven”.