Bach Cantatas Nos 106, 118b & 198
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach
Label: Archiv
Magazine Review Date: 5/1991
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 59
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 429 782-2AH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Cantata No. 106, 'Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Z |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Tenor English Baroque Soloists Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Michael Chance, Alto Monteverdi Choir Nancy Argenta, Soprano Stephen Varcoe, Baritone |
| Cantata No. 118, 'O Jesu Christ, mein's Leben Lich |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
English Baroque Soloists Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Monteverdi Choir |
| Cantata No. 198, 'Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Tenor English Baroque Soloists Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Michael Chance, Alto Monteverdi Choir Nancy Argenta, Soprano Stephen Varcoe, Baritone |
Author: Nicholas Anderson
Twenty years intervened between the composition of these deeply affecting funeral cantatas. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit dates from 1707 when Bach was, for a short while, organist of the Blasiuskirche at Muhlhausen; Lass, Furstin, lass noch einen Strahl, on the other hand, is a Leipzig work which he wrote and performed in 1727 at the memorial service for Christiane Eberhardine, Queen of Poland, Electoral Princess of Saxony and the wife of Augustus the Strong. Additionally, John Eliot Gardiner includes the little funeral motet O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht in its later version (c. 1740) with two ''litui''—Gardiner interprets these as trumpets rather than horns—oboes, bassoon and strings.
Any fears that the elegiac spirit might, in this instance be too well sustained, can be dispelled by the immense variety present in the music—variety in form, colour and theological outlook. The central theme of Cantata No. 106, the ''Actus tragicus'' as it is designated in Penzel's copy, is that of death according to the Old Testament Covenant contrasted with death according to the New Testament Gospels. Cantata No. 198, on the other hand, is of a different character altogether. The author was Gottsched who was soon to become a leading figure in the German Enlightenment; his text evokes a mood somewhat similar to theElegy Written in a Country Church-Yard by his English contemporary, Thomas Gray.
These performances are technically refined and affectionately realized. Anthony Rolfe Johnson is affectingly plaintive in the ''Actus tragicus'', though not without a hint of vocal strain in the upper reaches of his tessitura, and Stephen Varcoe well-focused, with just the right degree of assertiveness in his aria ''Bestelle dein Haus''. He and Michael Chance respond tenderly to those sections of the text directly connected with the Crucifixion, while Nancy Argenta makes a brief but lyrical contribution to the whole.
My sensibilities were more readily beguiled by Gardiner's performance of the ''Actus tragicus'' and of the Motet than by the Funeral Ode for Queen Christiane Eberhardine. My chief reservation concerns the three choruses, which to my ears fail to realize fully the pathos of Bach's music. They provide a powerful B minor framework while at the same time providing a lively contrast with more lightly textured recitatives and arias. I find Gardiner's tempos a shade too fast and the approach in general a little bland. Jurgen Jurgens, more successfully than any other perhaps, captured the gracefulness and poignancy of these movements in his Telefunken recording of the work (11/67—nla). Much else here, though, is first-rate and the disc, as a whole, can be confidently recommended.'
Any fears that the elegiac spirit might, in this instance be too well sustained, can be dispelled by the immense variety present in the music—variety in form, colour and theological outlook. The central theme of Cantata No. 106, the ''Actus tragicus'' as it is designated in Penzel's copy, is that of death according to the Old Testament Covenant contrasted with death according to the New Testament Gospels. Cantata No. 198, on the other hand, is of a different character altogether. The author was Gottsched who was soon to become a leading figure in the German Enlightenment; his text evokes a mood somewhat similar to the
These performances are technically refined and affectionately realized. Anthony Rolfe Johnson is affectingly plaintive in the ''Actus tragicus'', though not without a hint of vocal strain in the upper reaches of his tessitura, and Stephen Varcoe well-focused, with just the right degree of assertiveness in his aria ''Bestelle dein Haus''. He and Michael Chance respond tenderly to those sections of the text directly connected with the Crucifixion, while Nancy Argenta makes a brief but lyrical contribution to the whole.
My sensibilities were more readily beguiled by Gardiner's performance of the ''Actus tragicus'' and of the Motet than by the Funeral Ode for Queen Christiane Eberhardine. My chief reservation concerns the three choruses, which to my ears fail to realize fully the pathos of Bach's music. They provide a powerful B minor framework while at the same time providing a lively contrast with more lightly textured recitatives and arias. I find Gardiner's tempos a shade too fast and the approach in general a little bland. Jurgen Jurgens, more successfully than any other perhaps, captured the gracefulness and poignancy of these movements in his Telefunken recording of the work (11/67—nla). Much else here, though, is first-rate and the disc, as a whole, can be confidently recommended.'
Bach Cantatas Nos 106, 118b & 198
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.