Now firmly into the period of Bach’s Leipzig cantatas, Bach Collegium Japan tackles three pieces belonging to the composer’s first weeks in office as Thomaskantor. Grandest in design by far, is the superb Die Himmel erzahlen die Ehre Gottes which Bach performed on the Second Sunday after Trinity in 1723. In its terms of reference, musical variety and emotional impact this work complements, perhaps even surpasses No. 75, a cantata on a similarly expansive scale which he had presented to his Leipzig congregation a week earlier. For the most part the music comes over well in the hands of the Bach Collegium Japan – like its companion, it opens with an imposing two-section chorus in the manner of a prelude and fugue – but I was a little disappointed by Chiyuki Urano. He doesn’t settle comfortably into his recitatives and his declamatory aria, ‘Fahr hin’ lacks character and presence. But I should add that in lesser company his performance would stand up well enough. Midori Suzuki sings her gently inflected aria with tonal warmth, clarity and assurance. Hers is a voice which I have enjoyed in several previous volumes in the series. Technically, she is unpredictable but, at her strongest, as here, she is well worth taking a chance with. Gerd Turk, rapidly becoming one of the major pillars of the enterprise, articulates his music with stylistic fluency, communicating textual content with declamatory fervour. The original countertenor in this series, Yoshikazu Mera has made his last bow in these recordings, his ascendant star shining on other (slippery?) slopes of the music business. However, his successor, Robin Blaze, can be warmly welcomed. His voice, lightly coloured and unforced, is not so unlike that of Mera at times, and he should do well in the present company, as he ably demonstrates in the superb duet with Midori Suzuki.
The remaining cantatas on the disc are for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (No. 24) and St John’s Day, both in 1723. Blaze gives a fine account of the joyful opening aria of No. 24. His phrasing is graceful and his articulation incisive, features which have so far been prominently to the fore in the instrumental playing of this series. No better example of its excellence can be found than in the trio sonata Sinfonia which introduces Part 2 of No. 76. Scored for oboe d’amore, viola da gamba and continuo, it may well be more familiar to readers in Bach’s reworking of it as the first movement of his Organ Sonata in E minor (BWV528). All in all, another successful issue apart from reservations expressed above and a small tuning discrepancy between the two oboes d’amore in the tenor aria of No. 24.'