König Johann

The complete organ works by Walther! Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748, a near contemporary of Bach) spent the major part of his life as the organist of the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Weimar, where he also was teacher of the Duke of Weimar. He formed a close friendship with Johann Sebastian Bach, of whom he was a second cousin. Walthers organ music may be divided into a large corpus of Chorale settings, in which he followed the tradition of Bach, and the transcriptions of fashionable concertos by composers like Telemann, Albinoni, Torelli, Vivaldi, Gentili and many others.

“Jan Willem de Vriend oversees a joyful account of Bach's festive music with light-footed responses to dance rhythms. I can whole heartedly commend this issue for its expressive warmth, its disciplined choral singing and its natural declamation.”

Wie ein Monolith ragt der Dirigent, Organist und Cembalist Karl Richter in der Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenmusik und der Bach-Interpretation der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts auf. Als junger Mann beschloss Karl Richter, inspiriert von der mitteldeutschen Kantorentradition seiner Heimat, dem frühen Eindruck des Klangs der sächsischen Orgeln und der Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs, sein Leben in den Dienst an der Musica sacra zu stellen. In seinem kurzen Leben, das nur 54 Jahre währte, setzte er diesen Vorsatz in den Kirchendiensten an der Thomas-kirche zu Leipzig, an der Markuskirche zu München, in Konzerten, Schallplattenaufnahmen für Teldec und Deutsche Grammophon und als Lehrer an der Münchner Hochschule für Musik, in einer Lebensleistung von fast unüber-schaubarem Ausmaß ins Werk. Es gelang ihm dabei, internationale Maßstäbe zu setzen.

This recording is of the rarely performed late fourth version of the St. John Passion. Cantus Cölln performs the entire work as a double vocal quartet, producing vocal brilliance and immaculate solo sections. The ensemble is one of the most renowned vocal groups for Renaissance and Baroque music.

Christine Schäfer models the notes in a sovereign and refreshingly light manner: Werner Güra not only convinces as an evangelist, but also proves his class in the arias." The two bassists intone a hearty-bawdy, sometimes very soft and gentle tone There is nothing wrong with Harnoncourt's portrayal of the opening movement of the Third Cantata, where the music explodes in a way that has not been heard before.

Schlank, beweglich, virtuos im Instrumentalen, überzeugend im Einsatz der historischen Praktiken und Klangwerkzeuge und mit großem Kunstverstand und Formgefühl Bachs Musik realisierend…

Previous recordings allotted the words of the angel in the Evangelist's narration of No. 13 to the tenor, but Münchinger rightly, in my view, gives them to the Angel. His direction is more lively and, where called for, more dramatic than in the competing version under Richter, and the Decca recording has, also, an extra brightness and clarity lacking in the DGG. The soloists are admirable in both versions, and in both, also, the Pastoral Symphony is beautifully played.

Riccardo Chailly - Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus in Bach's city of Leipzig - conducts the city's famous Gewandhausorchester in the glorious Christmas Oratorio. An outstanding vocal cast includes Martin Lattke as the evangelist, acclaimed English soprano Carolyn Sampson and the voices of the Dresdner Kammerchor. The six parts which make up the Christmas Oratorio tell the biblical story from Christ's birth to the adoration of the shepherds and the Magi, and the flight in to Egypt to escape Herod's slaughter of the infants. Having first conducted the Gewandhausorchester in 1986, Riccardo Chailly's association with Leipzig is now only one year less than Bach's.