Gardiner Bach Magnificat

A new live recording of Bach’s Lutheran Mass in F Major (BWV223), Cantata "Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt (BWV 151) and Magnificat in E flat (BWV243a), recorded in London at the end of a European tour in December 2016.

The flashy, kaleidoscopic Magnificat remains one of Bach's most popular works, and this is one of its best recordings. John Eliot Gardiner directs a performance full of energy: his crackerjack choir and orchestra sail through the trickiest passages at high speed without sounding at all rushed or uncomfortable. The soloists are fine, with especially lovely singing from Nancy Argenta, Patrizia Kwella, and Charles Brett in the trio "Suscepit Israel." Also on this disc is the finest available version of the Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen Cantata. Emma Kirkby sings with all the purity of one of Bach's boys and all the assurance of an expert adult. She and trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins hurtle fearlessly through this famously difficult piece, high notes and long, fast runs holding no terrors for them.

–Matthew Westphal

Bach's setting of the Magnificat is one of his most often-recorded vocal works; as a rule, it's paired with one of Bach's lavishly scored festal cantatas. (The Easter Oratorio seems to be a current favorite.) Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan had a different idea: they've paired Bach's Magnificat with roughly contemporary settings by Johann Kuhnau, who was Bach's immediate predecessor in Leipzig, and Jan Dismas Zelenka, who was a composer at the court of Saxony in Dresden. Zelenka is an interesting composer, among the most underrated of the Baroque era. His writing is less dense and intricate than Bach's–at times it looks forward to the simpler, more elegant style of Haydn and C.P.E. Bach. Zelenka knew his counterpoint, however, and was fond of slipping the occasional surprising chord change into his music.

Gardiner's acclaimed readings of the major Bach choral works are joined by 12 CDs of equally distinguished recordings of Bach cantatas, from Gardiner’s famous "pilgrimage" in 2000, plus the "Magnificat" and "Cantata no. 51".
Included in this 22 disc special release: the classic recordings of the "Christmas Oratorio", the "St. Matthew Passion", the "St. John Passion" and the "Mass in B minor"; a wide selection of 37 cantatas, odes and motets covering the whole church year and other occasions, and including favourites such as "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland", "Wachet auf", "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben", and "Ich habe genug".

Deutsche Grammophon presents a complete survey of Sir John Eliot Gardiner's recordings for Achiv Produktion and DG. Orchestras & Choirs: Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantic, the Wiener Philharmoniker, NDR-Chor, NDR Sinfonieorchester, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Soloists include: Anne Sofie von Otter, Ian Bostridge, Barbara Bonney, Emma Kirkby, Mark Padmore, Bernarda Fink, Magdalena Kozena, Bryn Terfel, and many more.

Widely considered as one of the leading exponents in early music, Emma Kirkby is renowned for her purity of production, clarity of diction and extraordinary degree of vocal control. From this release it is obvious that Emma Kirkby's artistic vigour and sense of discovery are undiminished. Alongside her incomparable performances of well-loved works such as Bach's cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, she uses the esteem in which she is held by musicians and audiences alike to champion long-forgotten repertory such as William Hayes's The Passions. Emma is accompanied by Cantillation and the Orchestra of the Antipodes conducted by Antony Walker.

2013 limited edition 100 CD box set on the premiere classical label Deutsch Grammophon. Subtitled from Gregorian Chant to Gorecki.
• It starts with Gregorian Chant and Machaut chansons and ends with Gorecki and the Minimalists.
• The greatest composers have as many as five CDs devoted to them (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven);
• 20th-century music is well represented with no fewer than 20 CDs.
• Operas and major choral works are represented by highlights, but otherwise the edition presents, as far as possible, only complete works throughout.
• Altogether, there are more than 80 composers in the set, with over 400 works for a total of around 120 hours of music.