Bach, J S: Cantata BWV171 'Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm'

After 15 years since Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan began recording all of Bach’s church cantatas, this huge project enters the final stretch with its 49th volume.

In the present volume Suzuki has gathered four works from 1728-29, with the texts all written by the poet Christian Friedrich Henrici – a regular collaborator with Bach, most famously on the St Matthew Passion and the Christmas Oratorio

The four works gathered here hint at the variety that may have characterized the Bach-Picander cantata year, with moods spanning from the jubilation of the New Year Cantata BWV171 to the anticipation of Jesus’ path of suffering in Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem, BWV159, intended for the Sunday before Passiontide. There is also variety on a more technical level, with BWV188 and BWV156 both beginning with instrumental sinfonias featuring important solo parts for organ and oboe respectively.

The latest volumes from the cantatas series have been met with considerable critical acclaim. With Volume 46 being made a ‘Critics’ Choice’ in Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine singling out both Volume 47 and 48 as ‘Choral & Song Choice of the Month’.

The final volume to be released this year in John Eliot Gardiner’s award-winning Bach cantata pilgrimage series on SDG. Recorded in January 2000 within the grand neo-Gothic Gethsemanekirche in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, the programme features Cantatas for New Year’s Day and for the Sunday after New Year. In contrast to the modest BWV 143 Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele II that opens the programme, Bach begins BWV 41 Jesu, nun sei gepreiset with the fantastically grand opening chorus, Jesu, nun sei gepreiset. The jewel in this particular cantata is the tenor aria ‘Woferne du den edlen Frieden’ (No.4), wonderfully rich and descriptive. BWV 171 Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm is equally magnificent as a cantata replete with emotional and thematic contrast. As the tenor (No.4) pleads for salvation in BWV 153 Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind, crying ‘…help, Helper, help! Save my soul!’, we are reminded that our afflictions have been heard as the alto (No.8) sings of the ‘blessed rapture and eternal joy’ of heaven. BWV 58 Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II continues this theme of the beleaguered Christian. This is beautifully illustrated through the use of the distressed, persecuted soul (soprano) in dialogue with a guardian angel, by implication, Jesus (bass).

The New Year’s Day cantatas invariably display particular orchestral splendor in that all of them are richly orchestrated for brass and woodwind instruments in addition to the standard strings. Although not an important date in the liturgical calendar, New Year’s Day was of special importance in Leipzig because of the opening of the “Neujahrs-Messe,” the first of three annual trade fairs that brought scores of merchants and visitors to the city. This offered Bach an opportunity to exhibit Leipzig church music which had no parallel elsewhere. Four of the five cantatas used for this particular occasion are featured on this album. The texts of all five works make reference to the traditional Gospel reading of the feast day, Luke 2: 21 (the naming of Jesus); BWV 171 does it even in its first line (“Gott, wie dein Name…”). BWV 28, included in this album, is designated for the Sunday after Christmas and was first performed on December 30, 1725. However, the text of the opening movement as well as the use of a New Year’s hymn for the concluding chorale strophe emphasize this cantata’s proximity to the turn of the year.

These recordings have been selected from the award-winning cycle of recordings of the complete cantatas of J. S. Bach by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir. The featured soloists are sopranos Sandrine Piau, Deborah York and Sybilla Rumens, altos Annette Markert and Bogna Bartosz, tenors Christoph Pregardien, Jörg Dürmüller and Paul Agnew, and bass Klaus Mertens.

This box set is a collection of Cantatas for the entire Christmas season from our award-winning series of recordings from the 2000 Bach Cantata Pilgrimage.

It features a cast of stellar soloists including Magdalena Kožená, Bernarda Fink, Michael Chance, James Gilchrist, Christoph Genz, etc. The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloist give their customary brilliant performances, making this release a must-have gift this Christmas season.

It includes some of Bach’s best known cantatas, including the glorious Christen, atzet diesen Tag (CD1), the festive and brilliant Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (CD2) , the infectiously rhythmic Ich freue mich in dir (CD3), Gelobet seist du (CD1) and many other “jewels” which glow with that special sense of expectation that is the hallmark of Bach’s Christmas music.

Packaged in a clamshell box, it contains 6 CDs in individual sleeves and a booklet with collected notes by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and texts in German and English.

Upon popular demand available again: Bach’s complete Sacred Cantatas, newly compiled, on 50 CDs, an unbelievable bargain.

These recordings, produced for the Bach‐year 2000, feature a superb boys choir, the Holland Boys Choir, a tradition going back to the time of the composer. The Netherlands Bach Collegium consists of Dutch early music specialists playing period instruments. Conductor Pieter Jan Leusink puts his entire soul in these recordings of what one might call “the greatest and most humanly moving corpus of sacred music ever written”.

Reviewers around the world praised the set for its “characteristic performances, marked by a great sense of authencity, especially from the use of boy sopranos”. It sounds very much like it might have sounded in Bach’s time (Gramophone).

Written to exalt the glory of God and to facilitate Lutheran worship, Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred cantatas stand among the highest achievements of Western musical art. This acclaimed recording sees the works performed in their entirety by a stellar line‐up of musicians that includes the renowned Holland Boys’ Choir and period instrument ensemble Netherlands Bach Collegium. The cantatas are directed by Pieter van Leusink, one of Holland’s leading Bach experts. From the plaintive opening of Weinen, Kleinen, Sorgen, Sagen (‘Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing’) BWV12 to the triumphant D major chorus in Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg BWV149, the works traverse a wide range of themes and moods, having been written for a variety of occasions throughout the liturgical year.

Between 1999 and 2006, the legendary baroque music specialist Ton Koopman brought together a stunning array of singers to record the complete cantatas of J S Bach alongside his own Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir. Released originally mostly in 3CD sets, this wonderful cycle is now being made available by Challenge Classics in its entirety. The 67 separate CDs have now been gathered together in a box with a booklet that includes a complete tracklisting and information about each recording.

Along the way these releases were acclaimed throughout the world, and received many major music prizes, including a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2006 for Volume 22 (CC72222). Featured soloists include most of the great modern day interpreters of the music of Bach’s time.