Bach Herreweghe

According to German theological tradition, which Bach knew very well, the alto voice was the very symbol of the Holy Ghost. Bach's three solo cantatas for alto demand enormous vocal virtuosity. Their extraordinary musical variety embraces sublime consolatory lullabies, a faithful echo of an organ concerto and the dramatic qualities of an oratorio. Andreas Scholl is the featured soloist in this reissue, backed by Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent.

Although Bach had dreamt of establishing a ‘well-regulated church music’ since his early days, it was only between 1723 and 1750 that he finally had the chance to do so, as Kantor and Director Musices in Leipzig. Here he invented the ‘modern’ cantata, combining chorales and traditional biblical texts with arias and recitatives on freely composed texts. The four cantatas recorded by Philippe Herreweghe offer a magisterial demonstration of the transition from cantatas initially judged ‘too theatrical’ to a perfectly achieved form – as in the cantata BWV 84, among the very last to be written.

In 1991, Philippe Herreweghe and La Chapelle Royale recorded three Bach cantatas on the themes of suffering and death - death viewed as a kindly comforter. The soloist was the prodigious bass Peter Kooy, a long-standing partner of the ensemble and a key figure in it's magnificent survey of Bach's cantatas, motets and Passions.

This double album assembles two oratorios and three cantatas for the feasts of Easter and Ascension. Often overshadowed by the Christmas Oratorio, the two oratorios presented here rely on a form of dramaturgy absent from the cantatas; whether directly portraying the protagonists of the Passion of Christ (Easter Oratorio) or having the Evangelist narrate events, Bach draws on the music of earlier cantatas to produce two works whose beauty and coherence Philippe Herreweghe has brought out more convincingly than any other interpreter.

Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4, Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79, and Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80. Written at different moments in the composer’s life and based to a large extent on the works of Martin Luther, these cantatas reflect a marked taste for dramaturgy, vivid word painting and an invariably astonishing use of instruments and voices. Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent give us an accomplished version of these masterpieces, confirming, if further proof were needed, their stature as ardent champions of Bach.

Sorrow, desolation and comfort: In 1723 and 1724, the congregation of the Lutheran parish church of St Thomas’s in Leipzig had ample opportunity to discover, week after week, a little more of the talent of their new Kantor, a certain Johann Sebastian Bach. Among the ‘obligatory cantatas’ that were his weekly lot were the three presented on this album, which make use of the texts of Psalms 22 and 130 (the De profundis: ‘Out of the deep have I called unto thee’) or deal with the ‘Weeping, wailing, lamenting, fearing’ that are our everyday fare in this vale of tears. In fact this cantata BWV 12, which actually dates from considerably earlier in Bach’s career, gives a particularly doleful tone to a programme whose ultimate message will nonetheless bring succour to souls in torment…

After a St John Passion that won widespread critical acclaim (Gramophone Editor's Choice, BBC Music Magazine 's Choice, Trophée de Radio Classique ), Philippe Herreweghe and his ensemble Collegium Vocale Gent continue the journey to the heart of Bach’s oeuvre that has made them world-famous with a programme of cantatas. The three recorded here were composed between 1723 and 1725 for St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig, where the composer held the post of Kantor from 1723 until his death in 1750.

The Christmas cantatas have in common the use of a church chorale as their conceptual starting point, and their intimate performing forces. In Bach's output they constitute a kind of meditation on the meaning of the feast of Christmas.

To the glory of God and the Burgomaster: Bach's appointment as director musices of the city of Leipzig in 1723 brought with it, among his other functions, the duty of providing an annual liturgical cantata specifically intended for performance during the ceremony of the opening of the session of the new Municipal Council. At least twelve such cantatas were written during the long years he spent in the pious town, of which no more than a third have survived intact. The almost martial accents of Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn, the invocation of prosperity and blessing of Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille and the astonishing parodies of the third Partita for solo violin in Wir danken dir, Gott - the three cantatas on this recording - are all somewhat unabashed combinations of the glorification of God and municipal pride.

If there is one work that sheds light on all facets of festive music-making during the Christmas season, it is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. This music transcends the ages and radiates throughout the world – starting in Leipzig, where the six-part cantata cycle was first heard in the two main churches of St. Nikolai and St. Thomas on the festive days between 25 December 1734 and 6 January 1735.