After the disruption of changing record companies midway through a complete cantata series, Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam forces have restored some order. Here are works from the third cycle which Bach composed in Leipzig between mid-1725 and early 1727, as he deliberately slowed down his cantata output: many services were by then including works by his cousin, Johann Ludwig, and the St Matthew Passion was no small preoccupation.Unlike Masaaki Suzuki, who presents his cantata series in slowly digested single discs, Koopman’s releases are veritable feasts with nine cantatas per set as a minimum. There has been the sense of musicians over-faced by too many concentrated and great works in too short a time: music negotiated efficiently but not fully explored. The solo singers remain largely left to their own devices. Here, in the case of Klaus Mertens’s imploringly rhetorical if inconsistent Ich habe genug, this is probably no bad thing. However, in general, characterisation and coloration tend to follow current fashion.

Koopman again draws on a wide-ranging team of soloists of which the contraltos, an agreeable alternative to the ubiquitous countertenor, relish their significant role. Bogna Bartosz is, though, something of a disappointment after Volume 14. The great solo cantata, Vergnügte Ruh (No 170), is often under pitch and even monochrome, yet she evinces a steadfast presence in Gott, der Herr, ist Sonn und Schild.

The strengths of Koopman’s Bach, as ever, lie in effervescent energy and dynamic projection, notably encapsulated in the choral work which is always beautifully balanced and tonally rounded. The choir bring an irresistible urgency to the magnificent aria and chorus of No 16, ‘Lasst uns jauchzen’, in which a fugal structure is magnificently superimposed on a da capo aria. Unforced projection determines the opening choruses of both Nos 43 and 39, although Gardiner and Herreweghe supply, respectively, even greater vigour and refinement.

As ever, the obbligato playing is of a high standard and Koopman relishes the solo organ parts: the instrument is shown to luminous effect in the Sinfonia to No 49 (the prototype of the finale of the E major Harpsichord Concerto) and the delicious final chorale setting. It’s never easy to sum up with Koopman’s cantatas, but this volume runs to form: few great insights but many impressive and thrilling individual movements.