Bach, J S: Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn, BWV1127

“Solo soprano and trumpet… have long made Bach's cantata 'Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen' a favourite with audiences. …this new performance with Carolyn Sampson and trumpeter Toshio Shimada is likely to prove appealing. Sampson's voice has bell-like clarity and an expressive warmth which serves Bach's writing... uncommonly well.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2006 ****

“Of Bach's 12 sacred solo cantatas, Jauchzet Gott stands as a virtuoso concert piece without peer.
No other work – with the possible exception of the secular cantata O holder Tag – pushes the soprano voice to such dazzling limits of coloratura. While Bach is thought to have used the work for a Trinity Sunday, perhaps in 1730, its provenance would appear to lie in the same celebratory context as O holder Tag (an aria of which is included as a 'bonus' track here), where courtly entertainment and panegyric often encouraged Bach to impress a potentially influential audience.
Carolyn Sampson joins a notable and plentiful list of fine sopranos who have tackled the work on record. She sails through it with controlled authority, encouraged by Masaaki Suzuki's spacious approach to tempi until, that is, the Choral and Alleluja where she and the admirable solo trumpeter (Toshio Shimada) pick off each fiendish run with a brilliant, almost nonchalant ease. Still, this is not a performance where Suzuki seeks to liberate the musicians towards true exultance: perfection is all but achieved, but rather as a geometric proof than the kind of genuine uplift we get from Stich-Randall, Giebel or Stader. Sampson's performance still remains highly accomplished and her natural poetic instincts are wonderfully realised in the recitative 'Wir beten' and the delectable but slight Alles mit Gott. Suzuki presents all 12 verses in a 48-minute marathon which no manner of variation and embellishment can sustain: maybe it's rather too much of a good thing.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Elin Manahan Thomas gives an intimate and clear-headed performance.” Gramophone Magazine