This latest issue from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage brings us
concerts from two European countries that, to date, have been
lightly represented. Only one concert
from a French venue has previously made it onto disc (
Volume
7) and we have yet to visit Switzerland at all.
The concert in Zurich attracts particular attention for it brings us one of Bach’s
very greatest cantatas,
Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis,
BWV 21.
The cantata probably dates from Bach’s Weimar days and gradually evolved
into the eleven-movement, bi-partite structure we now know. The text and the
music take the listener on a significant spiritual journey from the poignant
penitence of the opening to the spectacular final chorus - or, at least, it is
in this performance - in which Bach and his librettist seem to rejoice in the
certitude of the Protestant Reformation. There’s a great deal to savour
in this performance but there are drawbacks too, I feel. To be honest I’m
not sure that the tenor and bass soloists were wisely chosen. Tenor Vernon Kirk,
a newcomer to this series, sounds efficient but not desperately involving in
his aria ‘Bäche von gesalznen Zähren’. To date in these
reviews I’ve not made comparisons with other performances but on this occasion,
just to satisfy myself that I wasn’t being unfair, I dug out the 1990 recording
by Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi). There the soloist is Howard Crook and
to my ears he seems much more engaged with the sentiments of the text. Shortly
afterwards, at the start of Part II, we encounter the bass, Jonathan Brown. His
singing is decent enough but in the recitativo and subsequent aria in which he
is
vox Christi, in duet with the soprano as the Soul, he’s put somewhat
in the shade by the expressiveness of his partner, Katharine Fuge. Herreweghe
has Peter Harvey, so often a stalwart of the Gardiner series, and I find him
much more convincing.
To be fair, Vernon Kirk makes a stronger impression in his second aria, the joyful ‘Erfreue
dich, Seele, erfreue dich, Herze’ but even then I don’t find the
sound he makes particularly ingratiating; his tone sounds a little pinched at
times. In the same aria Howard Crook is lighter in tone and invests the music
with a bit more spring. Having said that, I marginally prefer Gardiner’s
tempo in this aria to that adopted by Herreweghe. Gardiner’s soprano soloist,
Katharine Fuge, excels, not just in the aforementioned duet but also, earlier
in the cantata, in the eloquent aria ‘Seufzer, Tränen, Kummer, Not’.
Miss Fuge and her fine oboe obbligato partner, give a magnetic performance of
this deeply felt aria.
I made one other comparison between the two recordings and this one was wholly
to Gardiner’s advantage. The cantata ends with a magnificent chorus, ‘Das
Lamm, das erwürget ist’ and I was bowled over by Gardiner’s
thrilling performance. Herreweghe goes for a more intimate approach but, much
though I admire him as a Bach conductor, on this occasion I think his conception
is too tame. I wonder if the concert itself presented the works in the order
in which we hear them on the CD? I suspect perhaps not for it is hard to think
that anything could follow this superbly celebratory chorus.
On the disc, however, we next hear Bach’s only other cantata for this Sunday,
BWV 135.
It’s on a much more modest scale than BWV 21. Interestingly, it seems Bach
never actually heard it performed for he was absent from Leipzig, testing an
organ in Gera on the Sunday in question, as Gardiner relates in his notes. I
like very much the intense singing and playing in the opening chorus - the keening
oboes make their presence felt to good effect. Vernon Kirk has an aria, preceded
by a recitative, and I feel he injects more feeling into the music than was the
case in BWV 21. I find him much more communicative here and his voice seems to
have more presence. Jonathan Brown is also heard to better advantage. Bach gives
the bass a defiant aria, ‘Weicht, all ihr Übeltäter’, and
Brown brings bite and character to this piece.
In the absence of any other cantatas for this particular Sunday the programme
is completed by Bach’s Concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord,
BWV
1044. Oddly, the soloists aren’t credited but I presume that they are,
respectively. Maya Homburger, Rachel Beckett and Malcolm Proud. All three soloists
do very well, especially in a lively, crisp account of the first movement and
in the last of the three movements where the soloists - and their colleagues
in the EBS - combine elegance with energy. Here Malcolm Proud’s rippling
harpsichord playing gives much pleasure. The slow movement, though well played,
doesn’t strike me as one of Bach’s more interesting utterances, though
other listeners may like it more than I do.
The previous week had found the Pilgrims in Paris and at the halfway point of
the project. Sir John tells us that at this stage the finances of the venture
were pretty stretched and its continuance was uncertain but this stress doesn’t
come across in the music making.
BWV 2 is a chorale cantata based on Luther’s adaptation of Psalm
12. It opens with an intense, often chromatic chorus, which is the sort of thing
that The Monteverdi Choir does so well. I love Gardiner’s supposition that
Bach is “no doubt prompted by the grim vignette of isolated huddles of
the faithful in a heathen world of persecution.” James Gilchrist is the
tenor soloist on this occasion and the imaginative and communicative way in which
he delivers his recitative shows all too clearly, I think, what was missing in
BWV 21. Later he has an aria in which his ringing tone seems to me to be admirably
suited to the sentiments of the opening line, which is translated in Alfred Dürr’s
book on the cantatas as ”Through fire is silver purified.” Gilchrist’s
performance is splendidly assured and completely convincing. Daniel Taylor, the
alto soloist, also makes a good impression in his aria ’Tilg, o Gott, die
Lehren’, in which he articulates the vocal line very positively.
BWV 10 was first performed on 2 July 1724, the Feast of the Visitation.
The libretto is the German Magnificat, paraphrased in parts, and, as Gardiner
says, it’s a “fascinating foil” to the Magnificat BWV 243,
first heard at the previous Christmas. It opens with a vigorous chorus. Much
though I admire the commitment and conviction of The Monteverdi Choir in this
movement I did wonder if the singing was just a bit
too strong and whether
a line had been crossed from jubilation into assertiveness. In the succeeding
aria Lisa Larsson is eager and energetic. She almost sounds breathless in her
enthusiasm but it’s exciting singing. Later we hear Stephen
Varcoe in what Gardiner rightly terms a “pompous, implacable” aria.
Unfortunately it seems to me that Varcoe doesn’t have the sheer vocal heft,
especially at the bottom of his range, to do full justice to the piece. Before
the final cantata in the programme it was a good idea to include Schütz’s
motet of the same title, taking advantage of the presence of the three sackbuts
that had been required for BWV 2. This short piece is exuberantly sung by The
Monteverdi Choir and it acts as a superb precursor to Bach’s cantata.
BWV 76 was the second of Bach’s cantatas to be heard in Leipzig
after his arrival there. It opens with an exciting chorus in which the orchestral
palette is enriched by oboes and a trumpet. The choir’s singing, full of
spirit and conviction, carries on from where they left off in the Schütz.
It must have been something of a calling card for Bach so early in his Leipzig
appointment for, as Gardiner observes, nothing in the surviving music of his
predecessor as Kantor, Johann Kuhnau, matches this movement in terms of “complexity
or forwardly propulsive energy”. In the solo movements that follow we find
James Gilchrist and Miss Larsson still in fine form. One doesn’t envy Stephen
Varcoe his task in the aria ‘Fahr hin, abgöttische Zunft!’ This
is one of those arias where the passagework seems almost gratuitously difficult,
especially for a bass voice, which, almost by definition, isn’t usually
the most agile of instruments. I feel that the much more lyrical recitative that
is given to him in Part II is far better suited to his vocal strengths. In Part
II also comes a hugely demanding tenor aria, ‘Hasse nur, hasse mich recht’ but
Gilchrist seems undaunted by its challenges. Mention must also be made of the
alto aria ‘Liebt, ihr Christen, in der Tat!’ Alfred Dürr describes
this lovely aria as “a special gem” and Daniel Taylor gives a winning
account of it.
Despite one or two reservations this latest volume is another impressive addition
to this important series. Sound quality and the notes are up to SDG’s consistently
high standards. Those who have been following this evolving cycle can invest
with confidence.
John Quinn
The
Bach Cantata Pilgrimage themed page
Lisa Larsson (soprano); Daniel
Taylor (alto); James Gilchrist (tenor); Stephen
Varcoe (bass) 
