Bach, J S: Motet BWV227 'Jesu, meine Freude'

Although a lot of mystery shrouds their conception, Bach’s motets count amongst his works which were played uninterruptedly in Leipzig from their origin up until now.

For this reason interpretative traditions have overlapped in the course of the centuries in these six remarkable pages. Philippe Herreweghe, at the light of recent research, has found inspiration in the Leipzig practices.

These traditions give these motets all their glamour, whilst given them stark relief with very different configurations (simple and double chorus, basso continuo, varied instrumentation).

Led by outstanding soloists, Collegium Vocale Gent is at the peak of its art. A new version destined to become a milestone!

Thirty years on from their acclaimed recording for Erato, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir return to the Bach Motets in a new SDG recording, taken from a concert in London last year at the end of a tour which saw performances in Italy, France, The Netherlands and Germany.

The Motets can be seen as some of Bach’s most perfect and hypnotic compositions. Through their extraordinary complexity and density, they require exceptional virtuosity and sensitivity of all the performers.

Each of them is endlessly fascinating, and each inhabits its own sound world, Bach's masterful use of canon, fugue and counterpoint, the brilliant exploitation of double-choir sonorities are perfectly matched by the Monteverdi Choir's virtuosity.

The album is packaged in a hard back book similar to our other releases. It contains 44 pages booklet with original notes by John Eliot Gardiner and texts in German, English and French.

For many years now, the name Eric Ericson is regularly mentioned in connection with Johann Sebastian Bach's choral works. With his chamber choir, the Swedish conductor has set new standards in terms of vocal power and thrilling precision. Audiences and critics alike are delighted.

In Bach's time the exalted place the purely vocal motet had once occupied had already been ceded to the cantata. But alongside this artfully simple ‘functional’ style, Bach perpetuated in his own motets, with incomparable mastery, the tradition handed down by his own ancestors, as preserved in the so-called ‘Old Bach Archive’.

Vocalconsort Berlin was founded in 2003 and made its debut the same year in Monteverdi´s L’Orfeo under the direction of René Jacobs at the Innsbruck Festival. The ensemble specialises in early and high Baroque repertoire, but also interprets Romantic and contemporary music. Under the direction of Marcus Creed, René Jacobs, Jos van Immerseel and Ottavio Dantone, the ensemble has worked with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the Accademia Bizantina. With the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, it has participated since 2006 in the projects of Sasha Waltz & Guests at Radialsystem V, the new venue for interaction of the arts on the Spree. Marcus Creed, artistic director of the SWR Vokalensemble (South West German Radio Choir) since 2003, studied at King’s College Cambridge, Christ Church Oxford and at the Guildhall. From 1977 to 1998 he was chorusmaster at the Deutsche Oper. In 1987 he became artistic director of RIAS Kammerchor, being awarded many international prizes for his recordings. He has formed close working relationships with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Freiburger Barockorchester and Concerto Köln. His recordings of works by Bruckner, Ives, Nono and Kurtág with the SWR Vokalensemble have received a number of awards from the critics.

The Bach motets are considered one of the summits of the choral repertory. Their technical and aesthetic challenges are virtually unparalleled. New College approaches these works with its customary zest and energy, strongly characterizing the forward impulse of the music, and its dramatic qualities.

A debate turns around the numbers of singers Bach would have called upon to sing these pieces. What is abundantly clear is that institutional resources dictated the choice, as they do at New College. If New College’s ensemble is slightly larger then Bach’s, both groups, across three hundred years, are composed largely of student voices. This music is for a rising generation of musicians: an exemplar of excellence in polyphonic composition and singing.

In view of the fact that several of the works are composed for double choir, the usual 16-member choir from the cantata recordings have been slightly expanded to 18 singers, of which some also appear as soloists. Included on the disc are the six motets BWV 225-231, as well as BWV 118 O Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht and BWV Anh. 159 Ich lasse dich nicht.

This CD includes some of Bach’s best-known motets; Lobet den Herren, Jesu meine Freude and Komm Jesu komm. Chorus sine nomine is one of Austria’s leading vocal ensembles and has performed in many international venues including the Barbican.