Daniel Taylor

“The pieces amply demonstrate Grandi's masterful command of a variety of sacred styles; admirers of early -17th-century Italian sacred music will find plenty to sink their teeth into...in the bigger-scale psalms the choral textures are pleasingly lean, virtuoso soloist passages are executed superbly and Bach-Collegium's instrumentalists play with a nice juxtaposition of conversational grandeur.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“...this vividly scored piece of theatre [BWV21] places both voices and a colourful instrumental group in urgent dialogue. We are drawn into this right from the opening Sinfonia...Among competing versions only Richter approaches Gardiner in his apposite sense of theatre.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010 ****

“...here, again, it the spontaneous and committed response of Sir John Eliot Gardiner's musicians which dominates the majority of performances...Gardiner is the king of dramatic moment...As so often in the Pilgrimage, James Gilchrist stands out” Gramophone Magazine, June 2010

“This is Bach at a very high level - a match for anything else that is currently available on disc.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 *****

“Once again, Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir is the jewel in the crown of each cantata performance. Add to that Gardiner’s dramatic, electric response to music he clearly loves and you have a set that rivals his Gramophone Record of the Year Award-winning disc that launched this amazing series.” Gramophone Magazine

“The second Sie werden (BWV183) is the pick of the crop… From the most theatrical of openings, the committed Paul Agnew navigates his way expertly through one of Bach's most extended and contemplative testaments of faith, "Ich fürchte nicht".” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2008

“This latest volume from Gardiner's 2000 Bach Pilgrimage exudes the now-familiar sense of urgent, excited discovery. None of these cantatas is well known. Yet the power and fertility of Bach's invention are spellbinding... As ever, Gardiner and his crack forces combine dramatic flair (the turba chorus in No 44 has a shocking ferocity), rhetorical subtlety and a profound feeling for Bach's unique vein of morbid inwardness.” The Telegraph, 9th August 2008

“There is a genuine pilgrim’s humility about this recording that contrasts tellingly with the magnificence of the achievement. Gardiner has made history.” The Times

“Another treasure chest of refreshment and musical surprises...Highlights include the exploratory BWV 150, the jazzy duet from BWV 97, Paul Agnew and David Watkins’s tenor aria with cello accompaniment (BWV 183), and the final Johann Christoph Bach motet – to die for.” The Times, 4th July 2008 ****

“Nothing better captures Bach's endless capacity for exuding inner succour than the luminous, gentle melodic contours of "Was des Höchsten" (from BWV194).” Gramophone Magazine, May 2008

“These performances do full justice to such genius” BBC Music Magazine

“The spread of locations – from Mühlhausen to Kirkwall – complements and intensifies the extraordinary range of cantatas in these rich and varied offerings from Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
Those who thought that, perhaps, the best fruits of the Pilgrimage had already been tasted, can think again with these two latest volumes.
One is reminded here – in works mainly for the extended summer months of the Trinity season – that the experience of touring so many masterpieces in such a short space of time obviated all dangers of homogeneity, comfort zones or complacency.
Some exhaustion and rough-edgedness, yes, and just occasionally there's not quite enough time for the performers to get under the skin of a particular work, yet such instances are impressively infrequent.
Gardiner and his forces rise here to each challenge (as the Pilgrimage had now passed the halfway point) with, it seems, a creative regimen of Bachian proportions: just as Bach efficiently identified how to react with supreme concentration and speed according to the compositional demands of the week, so these 21st-century performers adapt robustly to the seasonal implications within this pattern of ever-changing locales.
The proof is in the imagination and wide compass of these performances – objectively assessed after nearly eight years – where the intense archaic idioms of Aus der Tiefen (No 131) and the municipal bravura of Gott ist mein König (No 71), performed in the Mühlhausen church for which they were written, are accentuated in quiet, contemplative dignity and surface finery, respectively.
For Gardiner the emotional stakes are high and this possible memorial cantata for a horrific town fire is especially moving.
Bach's own engagement with a text or liturgical 'problem' depended largely on personal circumstances and this means that some cantatas make for challenging listening. Gardiner recognises this in his note for the austere Ein ungefärbtGemüte (No 24), where the Gospel paraphrase of 'ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them' is reflected in a fiddly chorus of contrapuntal finger-wagging, a caveat of hypocrisy which then implores us to constancy.
Gardiner is a master of delivering these hard enigmatic pieces with renewed logic and understanding, aided in No 185 by the fine duet of Magdalena KoOená and Paul Agnew and, then, alto Nathalie Stutzmann in the delectable 'Sei bemüht in dieser Zeit' (where the successful sower reaps a splendid harvest). This is, in fact, far from enigmatic but one of those courtly Weimar arias whose inimitable generosity of spirit, not least in its ordered periodic phrasing, requires assiduous refinement in voicing, which is exactly what the beautiful oboe-and-strings blend provides.
If the cantatas discussed this far are included in the unusually rich Vol 3, Vol 27 from Blythburgh and Kirkwall is only marginally less uniformly good. Both volumes are characterised by choral and instrumental contributions of the most imploring and thrilling extremes (for instance, the glowing chorus to No 177, Bach's provocative take on Marianne von Ziegler's text in No 176 and the ecstatic trumpetings of Gelobet, No 129).
Many of the arias for Whit Tuesday and Trinity Sunday comprise reused material from secular cantatas at Cöthen and hence the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed gavottes, minuets and bourrées, which appear regularly. Nothing better captures Bach's endless capacity for exuding inner succour than the luminous, gentle melodic contours of 'Was des Höchsten' (from No 194), although it's only one example in another treasure chest of cantatas, whose jewels continue to glisten for the new pilgrim-collectors.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The programme on this CD concluded John Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. The earliest piece is Tritt auf die Glaubens-bahn, BWV 152… Gardiner captures its intimacy and tenderness, and is outstandingly well served by Gillian Keith in her aria with recorder, viola d'amore and continuo. This is pure magic to my ears...” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 *****

“Once again, Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir is the jewel in the crown of each cantata performance. Add to that Gardiner’s dramatic, electric response to music he clearly loves and you have a set that rivals his Gramophone Record of the Year Award-winning disc that launched this amazing series.” Gramophone Magazine

“The seven cantatas here, nominally representing the works for the two Sundays after Easter, cover an unusual range from No 150 to the dazzling maturity of three pastoral cantatas from three different cycles in Leipzig. As Gardiner reminds us in his entertaining diary, the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt is now named after its teenage protégé organist and it seems appropriate that the early cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlangenmich should appear at the very place in which it probably received its premiere. One observes the ostentation of youth where Bach rolls out his command of past and current musica lingua as an advertisement of his ability.
The performances from Arnstadt are generally fresh and satisfying, and in No 150 there is a real sense of occasion. There are significant challenges in the burly orchestral concerto movement which opens Am Abend (No 42) and its long meandering aria 'Wo zwei und drei', bravely negotiated by Daniel Taylor but which, for me, cries out for the embracing security of a fine mezzo or contralto. The bold Halt imGedächtnis (No 67) receives a committed reading but the extraordinarily dramatic scene with bass and chorus (where Christ brings peace and assurance to his ostracised disciples) fails to resonate with special moment.
The more durable performances come from Echternach in Luxembourg. Du Hirte Israel (No 104) is a gloriously poised work, unassuming on the surface and yet requiring the judgement to 'lift' each balletic movement without pushing the pace. Gardiner is only thwarted from hitting the spot by generally uneventful solo singing.
Ich bin ein guter Hirt (No 85), on the other hand, conveys the delicate and subtle pastoral conceits of 'Christ, the good shepherd' with endlessly alluring dialogues between on-form singers and instrumentalists, notably some disarmingly beautiful oboe playing, a performance of real distinction. The concise No 112 (following Psalm 23 to the letter) glows with the same ardour. It is indeed the second disc which establishes the longer-term credentials in this richly endowed and unique series.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Ich bin ein guter Hirt (BWV85)… conveys the delicate and subtle pastoral conceits of "Christ, the good shepherd" with endlessly alluring dialogues between on-form singers and instrumentalists, notably some disarmingly beautiful oboe playing, a performance of real distinction.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007

“Each new arrival in John Eliot Gardiner’s massive Bach Cantata Pilgrimage series is still, unapologetically, worth trumpeting…Pure pleasure.” METRO