The church cantata very quickly came to occupy a privileged place in Bach’s output, but it was in his Leipzig period that he explored new stylistic possibilities for the genre in several cycles. The third of these, mostly scored for relatively small forces, features in these Dialogkantaten three fine examples of the ‘madrigalian’ type: in their arias, recitatives and chorales, the composer deploys a poetry that does not exclude audacity and an eloquence worthy of opera.
This is an archival release designed for the fans, and it should be treated that way. That means while there are certainly interesting variations of familiar songs, rarities, and unexpected delights for fans, it's undeniably for those fans who will realize how these versions differ from the originals, or those who will delight in the subtle stage patter from Townshend. Most of all, it's for the fans who embrace the spiritual side of Townshend, particularly his recordings for his guru, Avatar Meher Baba, since he and Raphael Rudd performed these concerts in his honor, several songs derive from Townshend's independently released albums for him, and these recordings are taken from concerts given in 1979-1980 for a select group of Meher Baba devotees.
This two-album set features British cello concertos from Raphael Wallfisch’s best late-1980s recordings. He has always worked closely with leading British composers of our time and is now regarded as the finest performer of their works for cello. As International Record Review asserted, ‘no British cellist has done more to advocate British composers than Raphael Wallfisch… [His] playing evinces that attention to detail, tonal finesse and understated conviction which has long made him an exponent of new and unfamiliar music.’ Those works are probably among the finest of the twentieth-century British repertoire. The original recordings won enthusiastic reviews, helped by such champions of British composers as Vernon Handley, Norman Del Mar, and Bryden Thomson, here conducting top British orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Philharmonic.