Marking the 250th anniversary of Bach's death has, up to now, been largely a matter of re-formatting old catalogues rather than generating new ones. There are notable exceptions, of course, but none more emphatic than this extraordinarily fine recital from Matthias Goerne of the solo bass cantatas. In just an hour of vocal music - only the celebrated Ich habe genug and the equally exceptional Ich will den Kreuzstab are included as fully rounded examples - we find Bach's mind's ear delighting in the potential of the bass voice to reflect preparation and longing for the next world, partly expressed through a noble valediction of earthly things.
The starting point is spiritual contemplation (of a sort he employs quite distinctively again with the alto voice in Nos 54 and 170), but Bach's ambition here is unashamedly driven by pure artistic considerations. Hence, the wide appeal these works have had for the likes of Hans Hotter in 1950 (No 82) and then Goerne's teacher, Fischer-Dieskau, who recorded both main works in 1952-53 and 1968 under Karl Ristenpart (Archiv, 11/54 - nla) and Karl Richter respectively. With a memorable reading from Jakob Stampfli, and the best account in period clothing by Klaus Mertens, Goerne is in distinguished company.
How this wonderful musician fills all Bachians with hope! This is the sort of mature, sophisticated, assured and boundless Bach singing which one hears so rarely these days. With the beguiling and cultivated oboe playing of Albrecht Mayer, Goerne takes a refreshingly underivative view of Ich habe genug, involved yet unobtrusively engaged. This, and the famous lullaby 'Schlummert ein', is fragrant, even and soft- spoken. Norrington's hold on the modern-instrument Salzburg Camerata Academica provides an almost ideal palette for the Lieder-inspired communicative range of Goerne. The strings purr in a gentle if slightly old-fashioned way, yet the orchestra is also receptive to period gesture (including minimal vibrato) ; just occasionally they rather fall between two stools and seem reticent (a pity about a peculiar glitch in track 3, 2'06'', where nearly a beat is skipped).
But this pales into insignificance alongside the opening melisma and subsequent translucent illumination of Kreuzstab. The heavy cross and its heart-breaking allusions are wonderfully inflected in one of Bach's most revelatory through-composed arias; the build-up and chromatic descent on 'it leads me after all my trials to God and to the promised land' is quite irresistible, as is his radiantly poetic response to the symbol-rich music that follows (the final accompanied recitative is a jewel). The brief No 158 is also a joy, especially the 'Welt' farewell in the central aria with its glistening violin obbligato and chorale. Another shiveringly beautiful and ethereal world opened up by a singer who, apart from his obvious vocal distinction, brings his own uncircumscribed world of experience to bear on the music. A great Bach recording.'