24 Giờ Sinh Tồn

Like its two predecessors, the eighth volume of our complete recording of Bach's cantatas is devoted to the first annual cyle of Leipzig cantatas of 1723/24. In planning and implementing this cycle, Bach took upon himself a burden of work far in excess of anything he had earlier assumed — to say nothing of the creative and artistic challenges involved. Whereas his Weimar cantatas of 1714-16 had been written at regular monthly intervals, he now had four times as much work on his hands. In the circumstances, it is entirely understandable that, whenever possible, he fell back on existing works, especially those written in Weimar, although pieces composed were no less liable to be pillaged. These self-borrowings notwithstanding, the main emphasis none the less lay on the composition of new works, and the first cycle of cantatas that Bach wrote for Leipzig is notable for the number of new pieces that it contains.

The sixth volume of our complete recording of Bach's cantatas inaugurates the long series of sacred cantatas written during the composer's years in Leipzig. With a single exception, the cantatas included in the present release belong to the first annual cycle and date from 1723/24.The cycle begins with Cantatas 75 and 76, with which the recently installed Thomaskantor took up his new appointment in April 1723.

The tenth volume of the complete recording of Bach's cantatas contains a final group of works (BWV 44, 73, 119 and 134) from the first cycle of 1723-1724. It continues with the first of a substantial series of chorale cantatas that give the second Leipzig cycle of 1724-1725 its particular character. This volume ends with the serenata BWV 134a, which completes the secular cantatas in Volumes 1 to 3; it provided the musical model for the Easter cantata BWV 134, which was composed in 1724. Bach's commitment in composing this second cycle of cantatas went well beyond his undertaking in the previous year. Whereas in the first cycle, existing cantatas from the Weimar period could be found alongside new pieces, the second cycle contains a sequence of newly composed works that continued uninterrupted until the spring of 1725.

The cantatas in this volume all date from Johann Sebastian Bach's second year of office as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. The series of chorale cantatas, which breaks off in early 1725, forms an almost complete yearly cycle which derives an exceptional unity of style and content from its debt to established Lutheran hymnody. Almost all the cantatas contain the first and last verse of a hymn, the other verses being paraphrased in recitatives and arias. Practically any selection of the chorale cantatas will display the unusually rich variety of form and colour that is one of their most distinctive features.

The cantatas in this sixteenth volume are all from the third cycle of Bach's Leipzig cantatas. This yearly cycle began on the First Sunday after Trinity (3 June) 1725 and extended over a period of about three years - unlike the two preceding cycles of 1723-24 and 1724-25. Bach's rhythm of composition had slowed down markedly in the middle of 1725. It is also significant that from February to September 1726 he performed a long series of cantatas by his cousin Johann Ludwig Bach (1677-1731), Kapellmeister at the ducal court of Meiningen. But even if the proportion of original compositions declined markedly, these include a series of particularly accomplished and extended works, such as Cantatas BWV 43, 39, 170 and 102. Musically, Bach's third yearly cycle of cantatas is distinguishable by the fact that they do not begin with large-scale instrumental symphonies, nor do they have unusually extended or richly scored opening movements.

The present album collects a representative cross section of Bach’s Latin church music that complements his extensive and rich repertoire of cantatas for the Sundays and feast days of the ecclesiastical year, works which Ton Koopman has already recorded with great success for Challenge Classics. It covers a broad chronological range from Bach’s time as cantor and music director in Leipzig, and includes the Magnificat from 1723, the Sanctus from 1724, the four Kyrie-Gloria Masses from the later 1730s, and the Christmas Gloria from the mid 1740s.

The cantatas in this fifteenth volume belong mostly to the transitional period between the second and the third yearly cycle of cantatas, i.e. the spring of 1725. BWV 3 is part of the series of chorale cantatas that give the second yearly cycle its special character, whereas BWV 28, 110, 146 and 168 already belong to the third yearly cycle. However, cantatas BWV 85, 87, 108, 128, 175, 176 and 183, mostly compositions on texts by Mariane von Ziegler, bring the second yearly cycle to its conclusion. Bach had taken up his position as Kantor of St Thomas's, Leipzig, at the end of May 1723 and so begun his regular performances of cantatas on the First Sunday after Trinity - in other words, in the middle of the church year.

Previously begun on Erato, Koopman's cantata cycle was taken over and completed in 2007 on Challenge Classics. It now looks set to surpass the famous Leonhardt-Harnoncourt set on Teldec (and indeed most of his other competitors). Koopman favours an intimate approach to the choruses - namely one voice to a part. Also, he opts for females soloists rather than boys, as would have been the case in Bach's day, and he favours mixed rather than solely male choirs. For many this will be a plus point, and it is good news for fans of Barbara Schlick. He goes for slightly higher than normal pitch - a semi-tone above present day pitch, which, as Christopher Wolff's notes point out, is what Bach used in Mühlhausen and Weimar, brightening the sonority quite a lot. The singing in virtually all the cantatas is pretty impressive and the instrumental playing is of a very high order.