Bach Easter Oratorio; Cantata 4
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach
Label: Veritas
Magazine Review Date: 7/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 59
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 545011-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Cantata No. 4, 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Andrew Parrott, Conductor Caroline Trevor, Mezzo soprano Charles Daniels, Tenor David Thomas, Bass Emily Van Evera, Soprano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Taverner Consort Taverner Players |
| Easter Oratorio |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Andrew Parrott, Conductor Caroline Trevor, Mezzo soprano Charles Daniels, Tenor Emily Van Evera, Soprano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Peter Kooy, Bass Taverner Consort Taverner Players |
Author: Nicholas Anderson
The Easter Oratorio, Kommt, eilet und laufet (BWV249) is the most neglected of all Bach's major vocal works on disc. Indeed, there are only two other recordings listed in the current catalogue. Andrew Parrott appropriately has chosen another Easter work, the Cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV4) to perform along with the Oratorio, in both instances adhering to his predilection for small forces. Thus the cantata engages no more than six voices at any one time, the oratorio a maximum of nine in the concluding chorus. Rather to my surprise I found these modest forces more convincing in the oratorio than in the cantata where occasionally the ripieno voices sound lustreless and uncertain of detail (Versus IV). What I enjoyed most of all in the cantata performance was the by-and-large excellent string playing which is evident above all in the poignantly expressive introductory Sinfonia; but Emily Van Evera and Caroline Trevor give a beautiful, lucid account of Versus II, lightly accompanied by the continuo. Following through a line of recent scholarship Parrott sets the pitch at somewhere approximating our present-day A=440. While there are some wonderfully effective moments in this performance I felt the expressive intensity of the piece a little underplayed. Parrott, by the way, placing the cantata in Bach's Muhlhausen period (1707-8) gives a conjectural reading which omits double-bass, cornett/trumpet and the eventual sackbut parts added at Leipzig.
The Easter Oratorio has a complicated pedigree. Bach made his first version of it in 1725, some 18 years after Christ lag in Todesbanden, one of his earliest essays in cantata writing. The piece was written to mark the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels whom Bach had previously honoured with his so-called Hunt Cantata (BWV208). By April of the same year Bach's librettist, Picander had dressed the text in sacred clothes for performance at Leipzig on Easter Day. But in 1726 the text was revised once again, this time for a birthday offering to Count Joachim von Flemming, the military governor of Leipzig. For almost a decade afterwards the piece remained undisturbed until, in 1735, the text was revised yet again when the work seems to have been termed ''oratorio'' for the first time.
Parrott follows Bach's ultimate text in which a flute rather than the more customarily heard oboe is assigned the solo in the Sinfonia's second movement. Here it is expressively played by Rachel Brown, though I should like to have had her positioned a shade more prominently. The arias, all of them of high quality, come over well, though Van Evera's limpid ''Seele, deine Spezereien'' is a shade too fragile, too brittle for me. Set against this and one or two other minor quibbles is the thoroughly musicianly and, as ever, thoughtful approach of Parrott and his team. Tempos are effective, rhythms supple and, where indicated, dance-like and textures almost invariably crystal clear. Some readers may feel the need for a greater body of sound, and a more substantial vocal presence but I found most of this musically satisfying, above all the oratorio. Spacious recorded sound.'
The Easter Oratorio has a complicated pedigree. Bach made his first version of it in 1725, some 18 years after Christ lag in Todesbanden, one of his earliest essays in cantata writing. The piece was written to mark the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels whom Bach had previously honoured with his so-called Hunt Cantata (BWV208). By April of the same year Bach's librettist, Picander had dressed the text in sacred clothes for performance at Leipzig on Easter Day. But in 1726 the text was revised once again, this time for a birthday offering to Count Joachim von Flemming, the military governor of Leipzig. For almost a decade afterwards the piece remained undisturbed until, in 1735, the text was revised yet again when the work seems to have been termed ''oratorio'' for the first time.
Parrott follows Bach's ultimate text in which a flute rather than the more customarily heard oboe is assigned the solo in the Sinfonia's second movement. Here it is expressively played by Rachel Brown, though I should like to have had her positioned a shade more prominently. The arias, all of them of high quality, come over well, though Van Evera's limpid ''Seele, deine Spezereien'' is a shade too fragile, too brittle for me. Set against this and one or two other minor quibbles is the thoroughly musicianly and, as ever, thoughtful approach of Parrott and his team. Tempos are effective, rhythms supple and, where indicated, dance-like and textures almost invariably crystal clear. Some readers may feel the need for a greater body of sound, and a more substantial vocal presence but I found most of this musically satisfying, above all the oratorio. Spacious recorded sound.'
Bach Easter Oratorio; Cantata 4
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