Bach, J S: Cantata BWV119 'Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn'

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 Caroline Stam, Ruth Ziesak, and Sandrine Piau, altos Elisabeth von Magnus, Michael Chance, and Bogna Bartosz, tenors Paul Agnew and James Gilchrist, and bass Klauss Mertens.

Six of the works that Bach wrote for the annual church service celebrating the inauguration of the newly elected town council have survived: the Mühlhausen cantata “Gott ist mein König” BWV 71 of 1708 and several Leipzig cantatas: “Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn” BWV 119, “Ihr Tore zu Zion” BWV 193 (incomplete), “Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille” BWV 120, “Wir danken dir, Gott” BWV 29, and “Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele” BWV 69. The present album contains three representative town council election cantatas from Bach’s Leipzig years, BWVs 119,120, and 69, and includes the first and last works prepared for this occasion. The last town council election cantata performed by Bach in 1749 was actually a repeat performance of cantata BWV 29, an older work originating from 1731.

These are first-class performers, very familiar with Bach’s work in award winning performances from the Edition Bachakademie. This 6 CD specially priced collection brings together the finest of Bach’s glorious cantatas of praise and thanksgiving such as “Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König” and Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes.

Just as much a part of Christmas as Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is a reworking of a collection of his secular festive cantatas to form a single larger work. It was first heard in Leipzig on Christmas Day 1734, and performed in six sections between Christmas Day and Epiphany 1735. Bach wrote similar oratorios for Easter and Ascension, and all re-use existing cantatas. For the oratorio versions however, it wasn’t just a case of cobbling the works together. Bach wrote much new music, especially the choruses, but the core of the work is taken from cantatas nos 213, 214 and 215.

Chorale preludes would have been a feature of any church service in Leipzig over the Christmas period, acting as interludes between the movements of the cantatas and oratorios. A selection of works for organ related to Christmas is included on the 10th CD of this Festive Bach box.

Recent recordings.

For lovers of Barock music - Bach in festive mood is particularly uplifting!

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.