German Baroque Cantatas

This is the second of a series of themed cantata recordings by Marcel Ponseele and his crack ensemble, Il Gardellino. The first, titled Desire , was reviewed in Fanfare 34:5. The current disc, titled De Profundis , includes one of Bach’s earliest cantatas, BWV 131, and one of his latest, BWV 177, as well as a cantata by one of Bach’s prominent contemporaries, Christoph Graupner (1683–1760). The latter is of particular interest because Graupner was the Leipzig Town Council’s second choice (after Telemann) to replace its retiring cantor, Johann Kuhnau, in 1723. But Graupner was unable to obtain a release from his current employer, giving the appointment to the third choice, Johann Sebastian Bach, and changing the course of music history. In fact, the much-maligned council’s logic was sound. Telemann, a former resident, was the most celebrated (and industrious) composer in Germany, and Graupner had been Kuhnau’s apprentice.

Amongst several delightful examples of mid- and late-baroque German solo cantatas included here, one stands out as a little masterpiece. It's a lamentation by Johann Christoph Bach, the leading composer of the Bach dynasty before Johann Sebastian. I cannot imagine any listener to be capable of hearing this music without in some way being affected by its poignancy.

German Baroque composer Johann Friedrich Fasch organized a music exchange service between Dresden, Darmstadt, Hamburg, and other cities, which allowed him to know exactly what was new and upcoming. His style, then, often seems to be rooted in his own period, while looking forward to the classical era. He enjoyed writing for the chalumeau, an early French two-keyed clarinet, and this mellow yet agile instrument is featured on three of the pieces here, most notably the concerto in B-flat. Gili Rinot proves a worthy player of this curious instrument, playing with virtuoso flair, yet able to float long, lyrical lines so lovely and sweetly that they seem to hang in the air.

VA - Vivarte Collection, Vol. 2 (2016) (60 CD Box Set) FLAC
EAC Rip | FLAC (Image+.cue, log) | Covers included | 17 Gb
Genre: Classical, Baroque / Label: Sony Classical

The box contains a perfect overview of VIVARTE’s legendary catalogue of ancient music ranging from Vivaldi to Brahms. Most of the recordings received critical acclaim all over the world, many of them won prestigious awards and many are reference recordings.

Johann Melchior Molter - Ensemble Trazom - Chamber Music & Solo Cantatas
300th Anniversary of Molter's Birth - World Premiere Recording
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 323 MB | Full Artwork: 52 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Arte Nova # 74321 40742 2 | Country/Year: Germany 1996
Genre: Classical | Style: Baoque, Chamber Music

"Johann Melchior Molter was a German baroque composer and violinist. (…) Molter's surviving works include an oratorio; several cantatas; over 140 symphonies, overtures, and other works for orchestra; many concertos, including some of the first clarinet concertos ever written; and many pieces of chamber music. One of Molter's many Trumpet Concertos is the signature piece of C-SPAN's Washington Journal."

Ton Koopman is not only one of the great fathers of the Baroque-Renaissance revival in the 1970’s, but a true pioneer of our time. After completing the Bach Cantatas survey, was he awarded the Bach Prize 2014 by the Royal Academy of Music. The prize is awarded to outstanding individuals in the performance and scholarship of Bach’s music and none could be more worthy than Koopman, who has been noted as doing ”remarkable work promoting Bach’s music in the last thirty or so years.”

The voice of countertenor Franz Vitzthum resounds with lightness and clarity: its almost ‘celestial’ quality appears completely free of all ballast. How appropriate therefore is this programme for Christophorus, in which the yearning for eternal life, when the shackles of mortal existence have been thrown off, was a central theme of the German Baroque period.

The voice of countertenor Franz Vitzthum resounds with lightness and clarity: its almost ‘celestial’ quality appears completely free of all ballast. How appropriate therefore is this programme for Christophorus, in which the yearning for eternal life, when the shackles of mortal existence have been thrown off, was a central theme of the German Baroque period.