Bach Oratorio

Camerata Vocale Freiburg, Kammerorchester Basel - Bach: Oratorio de Noel, BWV 248.1, Festival de Musique Baroque de Lyon

Camerata Vocale Freiburg, Kammerorchester Basel - Bach: Oratorio de Noel, BWV 248.1, Le Festival de Musique Baroque de Lyon 2009 [TVRip 576i]
MPEG2 Main, 704x576i (16:9), 3.9 Mbps, 25 fps | MP2 256 kb/s, 2 ch | 00:27:46 | 772 Mb
Baroque, Choral | Mezzo | TV->MPG

Oratorio de Noel, Cantate n°1 BWV 248 by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Camerata Vocale Freiburg, Kammerorchester Basel (directed by charming and energetic Winfried Toll) at 26th Festival de Musique Baroque de Lyon, Chapelle de la Trinite, 2009.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien - Bach: Oratorio de Noel (2013/2024)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien - Bach: Oratorio de Noel (2013/2024)
FLAC (tracks), Lossless | 2:29:10 | 737 Mb
Genre: Classical

If this 2007 recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio was the only one you were to hear, you would likely be well satisfied. Nikolaus Harnoncourt knows the work from long experience, his first recording dates from 1973, and he knows not only how to balance the soloists, chorus, and orchestra but how to balance the festive, the reflective, and the demonstrative, as well. The soloists here are generally quite fine – clarion soprano Christine Schäfer and stentorian bass Christian Gerhaher are especially effective – the Arnold Schoenberg Choir is, as always, deep and sonorous, and Harnoncourt's hand-picked Concentus Musicus Wien performs with its standard gusto and enthusiasm. These factors in addition to the overwhelming magnificence of the work itself are more than enough to make for an enjoyable recording. But, of course, there have been many, many recordings of the Christmas Oratorio before this one, and many of them are far better than this one of Harnoncourt's. One could point to the lift and drive of John Eliot Gardiner's recording, or to the joy and devotion of Karl Richter's, or the soul and spirit of Kurt Thomas', or lightness and grace of Ton Koopman's, or the sheer vocal beauty of Peter Schreier's, and still barely have touched on all the performances that go further into the work than Harnoncourt's. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's super audio sound has tremendous impact in the loud passages but still contrives to sound flat and two-dimensional the rest of the time.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien - Bach: Oratorio de Noel (2013/2024)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien - Bach: Oratorio de Noel (2013/2024)
FLAC (tracks), Lossless | 2:29:10 | 737 Mb
Genre: Classical

If this 2007 recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio was the only one you were to hear, you would likely be well satisfied. Nikolaus Harnoncourt knows the work from long experience, his first recording dates from 1973, and he knows not only how to balance the soloists, chorus, and orchestra but how to balance the festive, the reflective, and the demonstrative, as well. The soloists here are generally quite fine – clarion soprano Christine Schäfer and stentorian bass Christian Gerhaher are especially effective – the Arnold Schoenberg Choir is, as always, deep and sonorous, and Harnoncourt's hand-picked Concentus Musicus Wien performs with its standard gusto and enthusiasm. These factors in addition to the overwhelming magnificence of the work itself are more than enough to make for an enjoyable recording. But, of course, there have been many, many recordings of the Christmas Oratorio before this one, and many of them are far better than this one of Harnoncourt's. One could point to the lift and drive of John Eliot Gardiner's recording, or to the joy and devotion of Karl Richter's, or the soul and spirit of Kurt Thomas', or lightness and grace of Ton Koopman's, or the sheer vocal beauty of Peter Schreier's, and still barely have touched on all the performances that go further into the work than Harnoncourt's. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's super audio sound has tremendous impact in the loud passages but still contrives to sound flat and two-dimensional the rest of the time.

Wolfgang Brunner - Bach: Die Israeliten in der Wuste (2012)  Music

Posted by varrock at April 24, 2019
Wolfgang Brunner - Bach: Die Israeliten in der Wuste (2012)

Wolfgang Brunner - Bach: Die Israeliten in der Wuste (2012)
WEB FLAC (tracks+booklet) - 375 MB | Tracks: 28 | 75:44 min
Style: Classical | Label: CPO

In his liner-notes to Hermann Max’s C.P.E Bach oratorio Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu the German musicologist Peter Wollny writes: "In the second half of the eighteenth century the German oratorio was marked by two characteristics. The tendency toward a highly individual depiction of emotions and the avoidance of dramatic operatic plots." Therefore composers turned away from stories from the Old Testament which were so successfully used, for instance, by Handel for his dramatic oratorios, and focused rather on the person of Jesus Christ. Bach's oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wüste seems to contradict this statement.
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - Johann Sebastian Bach: Oster-Oratorium (1999)

Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - Johann Sebastian Bach: Oster-Oratorium (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 302 Mb | Total time: 72:36 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | # HMX 2951513 | Recorded: 1995

Once in while a recording comes along in which the performers, producers, and recording team get everything right. This is one of them. First issued in 1995, this production of Bach’s Easter “oratorium” easily can claim supremacy among several very good alternatives. Largely cobbled from an earlier secular cantata for a duke’s birthday, the music is some of Bach’s most poignant while being alternately festive and meditative. There are no “roles” as we find in the Passions, no Evangelist-type recitatives, no chorales, and there’s no real dramatic story line. Instead, we visit a particular scene–Peter, John, and the two Marys discover the empty tomb and contemplate its meaning.
Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - Johann Sebastian Bach: Oster-Oratorium (1999)

Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent - Johann Sebastian Bach: Oster-Oratorium (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 302 Mb | Total time: 72:36 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | # HMX 2951513 | Recorded: 1995

Once in while a recording comes along in which the performers, producers, and recording team get everything right. This is one of them. First issued in 1995, this production of Bach’s Easter “oratorium” easily can claim supremacy among several very good alternatives. Largely cobbled from an earlier secular cantata for a duke’s birthday, the music is some of Bach’s most poignant while being alternately festive and meditative. There are no “roles” as we find in the Passions, no Evangelist-type recitatives, no chorales, and there’s no real dramatic story line. Instead, we visit a particular scene–Peter, John, and the two Marys discover the empty tomb and contemplate its meaning.
Michael Alexander Willens, Kolner Akademie - Johann Mattheson: Das größte Kind / Christmas Oratorio (2009)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Johann Mattheson: Das größte Kind / Christmas Oratorio (2009)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 290 Mb | Total time: 56:01 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 777 455-2 | Recorded: 2008

We tend to think of Johann Mattheson (1681–1764) as a theorist first and foremost, and as a composer almost as an afterthought. To be sure, he competed in a world in Hamburg that at one time or another featured Reinhard Keiser, Georg Philipp Telemann, and George Frederick Handel; indeed, all of these were friends, sometimes rivals, and in one case, he and Handel even fought a duel over an opera, Cleopatra (Mattheson would have won, but a metal coat button deflected his sword, fortunately both for posterity and Handel). As a singer, he was well regarded, but by 1705 he had traded his performance chops for a real job as private secretary to the English ambassador.
Felix Koch, Neumeyer Consort, Gutenberg-Kammerchor - Johann Sebastian Bach: Markus-Passion, Fassung von 1744 (2018)

Felix Koch, Neumeyer Consort, Gutenberg-Kammerchor - Johann Sebastian Bach: Markus-Passion, Fassung von 1744 (2018)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 381 Mb | Total time: 87:04 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Christophorus | CHR77423 | Recorded: 2017

Bach’s lost St Mark Passion was first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday 1731 and a second time in 1744 in a revised version. Though Bach's music is lost, the libretto by Picander is still extant, and from this, the work can to some degree be reconstructed. Unlike Bach's earlier existing passions (St John Passion and St Matthew Passion), the Markus-Passion is probably a parody – it recycles previous works. Which of his own works Bach may have taken for his St Mark Passion led to numerous speculations. Differently from further reconstructions the Frankfurt musicologist Prof. Karl Böhmer used the revised Picander text from 1744 which schedules one Aria and a chorale more than the 1731 version. Other parts have been revised and complemented.
Christoph Spering, Das Neue Orchester - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Die Israeliten in der Wüste (2015)

Christoph Spering, Das Neue Orchester - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Die Israeliten in der Wüste (2015)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 304 Mb | Total time: 75:13 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi | # 88875016302 | Recorded: 2014

Einer der Höhepunkte des Bachfestes Leipzig 2014 im 300. Geburtsjahr Carl Philip Emanuel Bachs war die Aufführung und Einspielung seines Oratoriums "Die Israeliten in der Wüste" mit den Experten für historische Aufführungspraxis des Neuen Orchesters & Chorus Musicus Köln unter der Leitung von Christoph Spering.
Konrad Junghänel, Cantus Cölln - Johann Sebastian Bach: Johannes Passion, Version IV (1749) (2011)

Konrad Junghänel, Cantus Cölln - Johann Sebastian Bach: Johannes Passion, Version IV (1749) (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 450 Mb | Total time: 109:45 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Accent | ACC 24251 | Recorded: 2010

This recording is of the rarely performed late fourth version of the St. John Passion. Cantus Cölln performs the entire work as a double vocal quartet, producing vocal brilliance and immaculate solo sections. The ensemble is one of the most renowned vocal groups for Renaissance and Baroque music.