Bach Cantata 140

Für ihn war Musik „Klangrede“, die uns auch nach jahrhundertelanger Vertrautheit noch eine Menge zu sagen hat. Als der Dirigent Nikolaus Harnoncourt am 5. März starb, verlor die Welt eine Musikerpersönlichkeit, die wie keine andere das Repertoire von Bach bis Gershwin, von Monteverdi bis Bruckner völlig neu zu beleuchten verstand. Lange war Harnoncourt mit seinem Ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien dem einstigen Warner-Label Teldec verbunden.

Between 1999 and 2004 conductor, musicologist, organist and harpsichordist, Ton Koopman recorded the complete cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, which he founded in 1979. This 2-CD volume contains a selection of Highlights from the award winning 22-volume series of the Complete Cantatas. The inlay contains an additional listing of all cantatas in order of BWV-numbers, referring to the volumes of the complete series. The soloists featured are sopranos Sandrine Piau, Elisabeth von Magnus, Johannette Zomer, Lisa Larsson, and Anne Grimm; altos Bogna Bartosz and Annette Markert; Tenors Christoph Prégardien and Paul Agnew; and Bass Klauss Mertens.

Münchinger uses WF Bach's alterations to Einfeste Burg (the addition of trumpets and kettledrums to the two largest movements), which - with the fresh, even raw, singing from soloists and chorus alike — makes this a dramatic almost triumphalist account; Wochet aufis similarly spacious and joyful. The sound is excellent; die chorus particularly vivid.

Jumping from Mozart on Deutsche Grammophon to Bach on Decca, oboist Albrecht Mayer continues to explore transcriptions as well as works originally for his instrument on Voices of Bach. This is a good and necessary thing since neither Mozart nor Bach wrote a sufficient number of works for the oboe to fill out a single disc. In the case of Bach, Mayer has hit on the ingenious solution of including not just Bach's canonical Oboe Concerto, plus his concertos for oboe d'amore and English horn, but also eight arrangements of well-known chorales for chorus and oboe.

Started in 2001 Sigiswald Kuijken cycle on Accent has made a very promising start. As one might expect these performances have a subtle sense of rhythmic hierarchy, with animated dance metres and well shaped continuo lines. The performances are highly convincing: the vocal soloists bring great energy to their lines, adding effective ornamentation in the choruses and projecting a distinctive character for each aria. These performances illuminate Bach’s cantatas with persuasive musicianship and also a critical appraisal of current performing styles. As a result, they are some of the finest examples of what historically informed performers can achieve.

With various record labels compiling complete works to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of Bach, EMI's more accessible approach is this luxurious anthology of the Baroque master's sacred music. Over two and a half hours, this program encompasses the grand scale of the Magnificat in D (BWV 243) and Missa Brevis in A (BWV 234). Between these are scared cantatas, the very popular choral Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140) contrasting with sensitive solo vocal writing in Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (BWV 12); motets; arias; and an organ prelude and fugue. It's a well-balanced program, covering every aspect of Bach's church music except the Passions.

John Eliot Gardiner continues his series for Archiv with works which Bach performed on the First Sunday in Advent - two of them linked, to a greater or lesser extent, to Luther's great hymn Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, itself a metrical version of the fourth-century Veni redemptor gentium, the third a parody by and large of birthday music which Bach performed several times during the mid to late 1720s.

Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir led by Aapo Hakkinen join their forces together with an impressive vocal cast, Carolyn Sampson, Benno Schachtner, Werner Gura, Jonathan Sells and Cornelius Uhle, in this unique release of rarely heard choral works by Robert Schumann (1810-1856). This recording includes the world premiere recording of Schumann's 17-minute Adventlied, Op. 71 for soloists, chorus and orchestra, four choral ballades based on texts by Emanuel Geibel, and Schumann's version of Bach's Cantata BWV 105. Robert Schumann wrote in 1850: "Keep in mind that there are also singers, and that the highest in musical expression is achieved through the chorus and orchestra."

This "two-fer" from the acclaimed French vocal troupe features Bach Hits Back and A Cappella Amadeus. Fans of the group's impeccable a cappella versions of classic Baroque, fugues, madrigals, and orchestral overtures will find much to love here, while those who pass the collective off as talented purveyors of whimsical novelty will only make it through the first two or three tracks.