Bach Kuhnau

It is possible to have a lot of fun with this CD. Let me explain. I was sipping a glass of Pinot Grigiot with a very good friend; she has listened to Sebastian since she was six. There can be few nooks and crannies of his repertoire that she has not explored Ц including the cantatas. I slipped this CD into the player and said laconically 'What do you think of this new recording of BachТs СUns ist ein Kind geboren?' By the time we got to the second chorus, she was enthusiastic; at the beautiful alto aria, she was ecstatic.

A world renowned international soloist and harpsichord teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Francesco Corti embarks a collaboration with Arcana with a musical journey through the manuscripts of the Bach family, beginning with the two books belonging to Johann Sebastian’s brother (the Möller and Andreas Bach manuscripts) and leading to the famous Büchleine for Anna Magdalena and Wilhelm Friedemann. The programme presents three major keyboard works by J. S. Bach (BWV 815, 992 and 998) that are preserved in ‘domestic’ copies.

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.

For the second time on the Phi label, Philippe Herreweghe presents four Bach cantatas written during the first year the composer spent in Leipzig. In relation to the repertoire composed in Weimar, the instrumentarium is enlarged to adapt to the size of the churches of Saint Thomas and Saint Nicholas. But, above all, the instrumental virtuosity is much greater, as are the vocal demands confronting the choirs and solo singers, trained at the time by Bach himself.

Kuhnau’s six Biblical Sonatas are among the most fascinating keyboard curiosities of the baroque. Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722), Bach’s immediate predecessor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, was a versatile composer, performer and polymath who produced fine works in a wide range of formats. These Biblical Sonatas were written as domestic programme music to illustrate - indeed, to describe - the following Old Testament stories: the Battle between David and Goliath; Saul Cured by David through Music; Jacob’s Marriage; Hezekiah’s Restoration to Health; Gideon, Deliverer of Israel; and Jacob’s Death and Burial.

18 keyboard sonatas from a little-known yet individual voice in the rapidly developing era between Bach and Mozart: music on the cusp of revolution.