Gli Angeli Genève

There are still many mysteries surrounding Johann Sebastian Bach’s personality. Yet, as new and exciting biographies appear, telling us more and more about the composer, we keep wondering what kind of a man he was in everyday life. Maybe because the very idea of the existence of such a genius is almost disturbing, and never ceases to amaze.

There are still many mysteries surrounding Johann Sebastian Bach’s personality. Yet, as new and exciting biographies appear, telling us more and more about the composer, we keep wondering what kind of a man he was in everyday life. Maybe because the very idea of the existence of such a genius is almost disturbing, and never ceases to amaze. However, that Bach was frequently called upon by instrument makers, and not only by organ builders, to listen to, gauge, and probably help tune musical instruments is no secret. He is thus closely related to the oboe family’s history since both the oboe da caccia and the oboe d’amore first appeared in Leipzig while Bach was working there. Moreover, he is the only composer to have offered music (the Passions and numerous cantatas) to the former and its warm, tender tone.

According to the obituary written by his son Carl Philip Emmanuel and his former pupil Johann Friedrich Agricola, Johann Sebastian Bach composed five Passions, including “one for two choirs” (the St Matthew Passion).

The Mass in B minor holds a very special place in J.S. Bach’s output: a work of grandeur, an opus ultimum, it was not composed as such but is the result of an assembly of pieces written at different times and for different circumstances. Bach worked on it during the years 1748-1749, until his eyesight, which had gradually deteriorated, was completely lost - a letter of recommendation for his son Johann Christoph Friedrich, dated 17 December 1749, was written by Anna Magdalena, who imitated his signature. It was rumoured in Leipzig that the cantor’s health had deteriorated to such an extent that the city council, on the orders of the all-powerful minister of Saxony, auditioned a conductor from Dresden on 8 June 1749, who had been recommended to him for “the future post of cantor of St. Thomas if the director musices Sebastian Bach should pass away”. By this time Bach was working on his Mass, which was larger than anything that had ever been conceived before[1]. His rather pale successor had to wait another year to replace him, Bach having died on 28 July 1750.

Around 1680, Dieterich Buxtehude composed Membra Jesu Nostri, a cycle of seven cantatas combining mystical medieval poetry and lyrical excerpts from the Old Testament to venerate the wounds of Christ. In 2021, Swiss composer Xavier Dayer echoes this with Afin que le lion féroce ne l’attaque pas. He joins the five singers and ten instrumentalists of Membra Jesu Nostri with a modern wind quintet, questioning in his own words the protective force of the artistic and contemplative gesture, in the interweaving of sonorities between ancient and modern instruments and human voices.

In Mozart’s day, the vocal typologies that we know today were yet to be established. Women were sopranos, castrati were castrati, and Mozart wrote for personalities and vocal colours rather than for abstract voice types.

This recording was made in April 2019 at the Ernest-Ansermet Studio in Geneva, after five concerts in Switzerland during the preceding days.

Then under the rule of the Habsburg Monarchy, Wrocław in Poland was a major center in the 17th century, with musicians coming from all over Europe to create a melting pot of influences and cultures. Many manuscripts thought lost during the Second World War have been rediscovered and are performed once again. Very few of the composers’ names will be familiar, but there are wonders aplenty on this beautifully programmed recording that distinguishes itself by its variety and myriad colors. Stephan MacLeod draws the best out of his choir and instrumentalists, the brass of Concerto Palatino making a particular impact.