Bach, J S: Cantata BWV61 'Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland'

Founded by Masaaki Suzuki in 1990, the Bach Collegium Japan began its landmark series of Bach's cantatas in 1995. In order to celebrate the ensemble's 20th anniversary – and indeed the 15th anniversary of the start of the cantata cycle – Suzuki has now devised a compilation of some of his personal favourites among the choral movements from the cantatas. The programme of the disc follows the Lutheran liturgical calendar, beginning with Advent and ending with the Feast of the Reformation, a feast which commemorates the day (31st October 1517) on which Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, the spark that would set off the Reformation in Germany. This disc thus traverses the full range of events and emotions that constitute the church year, from the joyous expectancy of Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, by way of the Passion of Christ, to Bach's elaboration on Martin Luther's own hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. In his own comments to the ample selection, Masaaki Suzuki gives his reasons for choosing these particular movements, and also offers two further favourites 'beyond the church year'. These are both pieces which in different ways transcend the boundaries of calendars, churches, religions and even nations: Bach's universally loved setting of Jesus bleibet meine Freude, and Dona Nobis Pacem, the heartfelt prayer for peace for the world from the B minor Mass.

The Bach Players explore the form of the French overture in two cantatas by J. S. Bach: the thrilling Advent cantata Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, from his Weimar years, and In allen meinen Taten from his later years in Leipzig. They follow with a dance suite by Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, opening with another French overture. To complete the disc, Heinrich Isaac’s beautiful Innsbruck ich muß dich lassen, which provides the choral melody for cantata 97, is sung a cappella, and played in two instrumental settings by Christian Hollander and Paul Luetkeman.

A 16-page accompanying booklet includes notes on the pieces by Hugh Wood, and the texts of the cantatas in German and in English translation. Engravings of performances at the court of Louis xiv at Versailles are used as illustrations. The CD and booklet are held in a packet made of card and without any plastic.

The liturgical year with Johann Sebastian Bach: in celebration of the 800th anniversary of Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig), Rondeau Production is publishing a ten-part CD series which presents a selection of cantatas for the liturgical year. In Leipzig, music for the liturgical year has an especially well kept tradition: up to the present day Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir) and the Gewandhausorchester (Gewandhaus Orchestra) join forces each week in the performance of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas at the church of St Thomas.

Following the publication of discs with cantatas for the Reformation, Christmas, and Pentecost, the newest release is the fourth recording of the ten-disc series: it presents the cantatas Schwingt freudig euch empor BWV 36 and Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 61 and 62 which Johann Sebastian Bach composed for performances on the First Sunday of Advent. As cantor at St Thomas Leipzig he followed the town’s adherence to the practice of tempus clausum, the period of silence: no polyphonic music was performed in services between the Second and Fourth Sundays of Advent.

The current cantor at St Thomas, Georg Christoph Biller, is fortunate to have boys from the choir’s own ranks performing the soprano and alto solos; a hallmark of the new recording’s unique level of artistry.

Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has been especially active in the lead up to his 80th birthday in December 2009. Following hot on the heels of his highly anticipated recording of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (88697591762) in December 2009 is this new recording of three of Bach’s loveliest Cantatas, BWV 29, 61 & 140, performed by Concentus Musicus Wien, in a new, up-to-date live recording

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, together with Gustav Leonhardt, produced the first-ever recording of all of Bach's cantatas in the 1970s. For almost 50 years, Harnoncourt has continued to perform these works, and if one compares Harnoncourt's recordings from the 1970s with this most recent release, it becomes clear that his view of Bach and his approach to playing Bach's music have undergone further development

Maestro Harnoncourt, who was just awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Awards will be featured on the cover of the January 2010 issue of Gramophone, and this feature includes an extensive interview. A high level of media coverage for Maestro Harnoncourt is expected over the coming months, in relation to his 80th birthday, his exciting new recordings and the aforementioned award

Accent continue their successful series. This CD contains cantatas for the first and fourth Sundays of Advent.

Cantatas for the for the First Sunday in Advent (Köln) & Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday in Advent (Lüneburg).

The illustrious, multi-award winning Bach Cantatas series on SDG continues with volume 13 in the series. It features Cantatas for the first and fourth Sunday in Advent and was recorded live in December 2000.

We join John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on their Bach Cantata pilgrimage for a concert of Bach’s Advent cantatas, performed in the largest of the Romanesque churches in Cologne, St. Maria im Kapitol (St. Mary in the Capital).

Besides the festive allure they have in common, all three of Bach’s surviving cantatas for Advent (BWV 61, 62 and 36) display a sense of excitement at the onset of the Advent season. This is a time of anticipation and waiting, and an opportunity for congregations to turn away from all those self-absorbed feelings of guilt, fear, damnation and hellfire that dominated the final Sunday of the Trinity season. This sense of having at last turned a corner is summed up in the radiantly benign accompagnato for soprano and alto ‘Wir ehren diese Herrlickkeit’, the penultimate movement of BWV 62 Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland (Come now, Saviour of the Gentiles). The successive stages of Advent and the different perspectives these give on Jesus’ incarnation are perhaps most clearly marked in Bach’s early version of BWV 61 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. The programme ends with BWV 36 Schwingt freudig euch empor (Soar joyfully aloft), a large-scale work divided into two parts, the first of which would have been performed before the sermon, the second afterwards.

The final European leg of the year-long pilgrimage takes us to the atmospheric Michaeliskirche in Lüneburg where we join John Eliot and his musical forces in a concert of three of Bach’s most gripping church cantatas. The programme begins with BWV 70 Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (Watch! pray! pray! watch!). We then hear one of Bach’s earliest cantatas, BWV 132 Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn! (Prepare the way, prepare the path), an intimate work scored for four voices, oboe, bassoon, strings and continuo consisting of two recitatives, three arias and a final chorale.

The concert ends with BWV 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth, Deeds and Life), the best known of Bach’s reworkings of an earlier Weimar cantata. The pre-Christmas excitement is captured in the glorious opening chorus by the fanfare-like opening section for orchestra.

This is the fourth release in ATMA’s ambitious project to record all the sacred cantatas of JS Bach in conjunction with the annual Montréal Baroque Festival. This cycle is unique in two significant ways: in keeping with the latest scholarship on Bach’s own performances, the choral sections are sung by the four soloists, one to a part; it is also the first-ever Bach cantata cycle to be recorded in surround sound.