Every countertenor in the current firmament will‚ sooner or later‚ gorge themselves on the rich pickings of late­17th­century German cantatas. Gérard Lesne presents several early Bach­family pieces alongside one of Johann Sebastian’s most celebrated solo cantatas‚ Widerstehe doch (No 54) in the kind of ravishing and involved performances which Lesne and Il Seminario Musicale have produced most notably in Italian and French music of the period. The works by Johann Michael and his elder brother‚ Johann Christoph‚ nowadays seem extraordinarily familiar given that they were virtually unknown until Musica Antiqua Köln’s pioneering volume from 1986‚ ‘The Bach Family before Johann Sebastian’ (Archiv‚ 2/87 – nla). Intervening years have witnessed recitals by the likes of Andreas Scholl‚ Robin Blaze and‚ most recently‚ Carlos Mena (in a disc of other significant rarities entitled ‘De Aeternitate’ – see page 74) in a diverse range of approaches to this profoundly felt repertoire. From the exacting intelligence of Blaze to the inimitable tonal refinement of Scholl‚ Ach‚ dass ich Wassers by Johann Christoph has become something of a yardstick. This great lament symbolises the brooding emotionalism of mid­German expressive language at its most image­laden. There is unremitting desolation but‚ oh‚ what beauty in the nobility of a rounded falsetto emerging from the deep­hued textures of three gambas and continuo. Gérard Lesne is a countertenor for the cognoscenti whose singing is always inseparable from the overall conception of the programme. In vocal terms there is no gratuitous honey­toning and every phrase conveys an intimate and considered homage to the artistic essence of the work‚ but eschews the type of dramatic representations which are too often passed off as interpretation. For Ach‚ dass ich Wassers‚ and especially in the richly subtle Wie bist du denn‚ Lesne is most in his element where the middle register of his voice displays its most distinctive coloration. If not as consistently focused or evenly controlled as in earlier recordings‚ he demonstrates musical presence of an exceptional kind. Lesne’s performance of BWV54 is sharpely etched yet is quite distinct from the narrow projection of sound which gives Deller’s 1954 account such an inimitable tonal character. The strings come to life in the second aria‚ ‘Wer Sünde tut’‚ where they extricate themselves from a generally languid approach. Il Seminario are a circumspect group who tend to avoid digging into the sinews of the early Bachs. They bring welcome light and shade to proceedings‚ though they are sometimes unable to carry the rhetorical strength and personality of the most intense passages. Aside from such a quibble‚ this is a compelling new collection of Bachiana.