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Recording locations: Recorded live: Paris/Zürich, July 2000
Cantatas for the second and third Sunday after Trinity, recorded live in July 2000.
Performing to an audience of more than 1200, we join Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists at the halfway point of their Bach Cantata pilgrimage for a concert in one of the great architectural landmarks of Catholic Europe, the Basilisque Saint-Denis (Basilica Cathedral of Saint Denis).
Featuring internationally acclaimed soloists including James Gilchrist, Lisa Larsson, Daniel Taylor and Stephen Varcoe, the programme opens with BWV 2 Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from Heaven), based upon Martin Luther’s German hymn adaptation of Psalm 12. The psalm describes how easily man is led astray by heresy and Bach deals with such grim subject matter by resorting to composing in an archaic motet style. The result is austere beauty and has the engrossing quality of ritualised worship. There then follows BWV 10
Schütz’s superb motet Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (The heavens are telling of God in glory) follows. This is a motet that John Eliot remembers fondly, since it is a work he has known since he was six and he can still hear his father’s ringing tenor declaiming its powerful text. The concert ends with Bach’s prodigious cantata, BWV 76 Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, a lengthy and complex bipartite cantata, comprising fourteen movements and divided into two equal parts.
We then head to Zürich to hear Gardiner and his Monteverdi forces perform within the stunning Fraumünster Kirche, distinctive for its slender, blue spire. They open with the two-part Weimar Cantata BWV 21 Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I had much affliction), considered to be ‘…one of the most extraordinary and inspired of Bach’s vocal works’, as stated by John Eliot Gardiner in his booklet note. There then follows BWV 135 Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (O, Lord, I poor sinner). This is superb music and Bach concludes with a rousing ‘Glory to God’, to the Passion chorale by Cyriakus Schneegaß (1597).
With only two cantatas for this Sunday in existence, the concert ends with Bach’s so-called Triple Concerto, BWV 1044 (Concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord). Despite its similarity to Brandenburg Concerto No.5, it seems to inhabit a different stylistic milieu to that of Bach’s other concerti – one much close to that of his eldest sons.
“This ongoing recording project ranks as one of the musical events of the decade.” The Observer
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2
Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Chorus)
Recitative: Sie lehren eitel falsche List (Tenor)
Aria: Tilg, o Gott, die Lehren (Alto)
Recitative: Die Armen sind verstort (Bass)
Aria: Durchs Feuer wird das Silber rein (Tenor)
Chorale: Das wollst du, Gott, bewahren rein (Chorus)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10
Meine Seel erhebt den Herren (Chorus)
Aria: Herr, der du stark und machtig bist (Soprano)
Recitative: Des Hochsten Gut und Treu (Tenor)
Aria: Gewaltige stosst Gott vom Stuhl (Bass)
Duet and Chorale: Er denket der Barmherzigkeit (Alto, Tenor)
Recitative: Was Gott den Vatern alter Zeiten (Tenor)
Chorale: Lob un Preis sei Gott dem Vater und dem Sohn
Heinrich Schutz: Geistliche Chormusik, Op. 11, SWV 369-397
Geistliche Chormusik, Op. 11: No. 18. Die Himmel erzahlen die Ehre Gottes, SWV 386
Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Himmel erzahlen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76
Die Himmel erzahlen die Ehre Gottes, und die (Bass, Chorus, Tenor, Soprano, Alto)
Recitative: So lasst sich Gott nicht unbezeuget! (Tenor)
Aria: Hort, ihr Volker, Gottes Stimme (Soprano)
Recitative: Wer aber hort (Bass)
Aria: Fahr hin, abgottische Zunft! (Bass)
Recitative: Du hast uns, Herr, von allen Strassen (Alto)
Chorale: Es woll uns Gott genadig sein (Chorus)
Sinfonia
Recitative: Gott segne noch die treue Schar (Bass)
Aria: Hasse nur, hasse mich recht (Tenor)
Recitative: Ich fuhle schon im Geist (Alto)
Aria: Liebt, ihr Christen, in der Tat! (Alto)
Recitative: So soll die Christenheit (Tenor)
Chorale: Es danke, Gott, und lobe dich (Chorus)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ich hatte viel Bekummernis, BWV 21
Sinfonia
Ich hatte viel Bekummernis (Chorus)
Aria: Seufzer, Tranen, Kummer, Not (Soprano)
Recitative: Wie hast du dich, mein Gott (Tenor)
Aria: Bache von gesalznen Zahren (Tenor)
Was betrubst du dich, meine Seele (Chorus, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass)
Recitative: Ach Jesu, meine Ruh (Soprano, Bass)
Duet: Komm, mein Jesu, und erquicke (Soprano, Bass)
Sei nun wieder zufrieden, meine Seele (Chorus, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass)
Das Lamm, das erwurget ist (Chorus, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Ach Herr, mich armen Sunder, BWV 135
Ach Herr, mich armen Sunder (Chorus)
Recitative: Ach heile mich, du Arzt der Seelen (Tenor)
Aria: Troste mir, Jesu, mein Gemute (Tenor)
Recitative: Ich bin von Seufzen mude (Alto)
Aria: Weicht, all ihr Ubeltater (Bass)
Chorale: Ehr sei ins Himmels Throne (Chorus)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for Flute, Violin and Harpsichord in A minor, BWV 1044
I. Allegro
II. Adagio ma non tanto e dolce
III. Alla breve
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”
June 2010
****
“...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.”
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Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Chorus)
