Christophe Pregardien

This recording is something of a classic of the historical-performance movement. It combines awesome soloists just hitting their peak years, a distinctive overall approach from conductor Christophe Coin and the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, and an illustration of what's possible when Bach's music is played on the instruments he had in mind when he wrote it. The illustration is especially vivid in this case, for all three of these cantatas feature an unusual instrument: a violoncello piccolo, which is a small five-stringed cello with a higher (the extra string is at the top) and less assertive sound than a full-size cello. There is also a second disc of these with the same forces and the same virtues. Coin plays several of these instruments himself and forges an instrumental sound to match its light, ethereal quality.

The disc Astrée E 8544 accommodates four sacred cantatas none of which commence with the customary choral movement. Cantata Ich bin ein guter Hirt (I am the Good Shepherd), BWV 85 is in six movements and is intended for Misericordias Domini (the second Sunday after Easter). It was first heard in 1725. All four soloists are deployed with a four-part chorus that appears in the very short last movement chorale. Bach chose to use a pair of oboes and a piccolo cello in addition to the strings and basso continuo.

On Astrée E 8855 there are three sacred cantatas. The first is Jesu, nun sei gepreiset (Jesus, now be praised), BWV 41. Bach wrote the six movement score in 1725 to celebrate New Year's Day (Circumcision of Christ, Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus). The composer wrote parts for all four soloists and a four-part chorus. There is a rich and varied instrumentation: a piccolo cello in a concerted part, three trumpets, three oboes, strings, basso continuo with the addition of timpani. Of the two chorales the uplifting and sparkling first chorus with its trumpet fanfare lasts over eight minutes.

A transformative force in historically informed performance, Ton Koopman is renowned as a conductor, harpsichordist and organist. In 1979, aged 35, he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in the city where he had studied with the great Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. Drawing on an international pool of players, the ensemble soon gained a reputation for flexibility, colour and expressivity as it explored the music of such composers as the Bach family, Handel, Telemann and Buxtehude.