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Bach: Cantatas 34, 50, 147The Sixteen Chorus/Choir, Harry Christophers Conductor
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The early music choir the Sixteen has achieved unprecedented success with its bright, very English sound and accessible presentations. The Sixteen Edition, the series of which this Bach cantata disc is part, finds the group designated as "The Voices of Classic FM," Britain's middle-of-the-road and widely popular classical music broadcaster; the choir shares airwaves, apparently, with Sarah Brightman and her contemporaries. It's all to the good, for anyone who hears the Sixteen will encounter top-notch performances of music from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, and this Bach disc is one of the best in Coro's reissue series. Begin with the sound, which is exemplary despite the recording date of 1990; working with some of Bach's most intensely complex polyphonic choral movements, the performers and engineers produced a texture of rich, resonant clarity in the environment of St. Jude's church in London's Hampstead Garden Suburb. The opening Cantata No. 50 is just a single chorus, probably a surviving fragment of some larger work. But what a chorus it is!—a giant eight-part piece with an orchestra including trumpets, oboes, and tympani. Sample the opening of track 3, the first chorus in the Cantata No. 34, "O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe" (O eternal fire, o origin of love), for a good example of the choir's virtuosity as it negotiates the vivid but brutal high-range passagework on the words "ewiges Feuer." Also contributing to the recording's success is the period-instrument Symphony of Harmony & Invention, which featured future star Roy Goodman on violin. The Cantata No. 147, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben," provides a delightful example of his gracefulness in the violin opening to the soprano aria "Bereite dir, Jesu," which concludes with the famed "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" chorale, here given a performance of unusual lightness and calm. There are spiritually deeper performances of Bach's cantatas, and more instrumentally virtuosic ones. For sheer direct appeal, however, these are hard to exceed. © James Manheim, All Music Guide
Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerCantata No.50: Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft (St. Michael), BWV50 (incomplete) Work
Harry Christophers Conductor,
The Sixteen Chorus/Choir,
Paul Nicholson Organ,
Symphony of Harmony & Invention Orchestra
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| 1 | Cantata No.50: Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft (St. Michael), BWV50 (incomplete) | 3:51 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerVater unser im Himmelreich, BWV636 Work |
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| 2 | Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV636 | 1:28 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerCantata No.34: O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung der Liebe (Whit Sunday), BWV34 Work
16:48
Harry Christophers Conductor,
Michael George Bass,
The Sixteen Chorus/Choir,
Paul Nicholson Organ,
Symphony of Harmony & Invention Orchestra,
David James Alto,
Ian Partridge Tenor
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| 3 | 1.Chorus: O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe | 7:20 |
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| 4 | 2.Recitative (Tenor): Herr, unsre Herzen halten dir | 0:47 |
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| 5 | 3.Aria (Alto): Wohl euch, ihr auserwählten Seelen | 5:55 |
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| 6 | 4.Recitative (Bass): Erwahlt sich Gott die heil'gen Hutten | 0:32 |
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| 7 | 5.Chorus: Friede über Israel | 2:14 |
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| 8 | Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV Anh.48 (doubtful) | 2:41 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerCantata No.147: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Visitation), BWV147 (includes 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring')...Part 1 Work
19:38
Harry Christophers Conductor,
Michael George Bass,
The Sixteen Chorus/Choir,
Paul Nicholson Organ,
Symphony of Harmony & Invention Orchestra,
Gillian Fisher Soprano,
David James Alto,
Ian Partridge Tenor
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| 9 | 1.Chorus: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben | 4:20 |
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| 10 | 2.Recitative (Tenor): Gebenedeiter Mund! | 1:49 |
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| 11 | 3.Aria (Alto): Schäme dich, o Seele, nicht | 3:46 |
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| 12 | 4.Recitative (Bass): Verstockung kann Gewaltige verblenden | 1:38 |
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| 13 | 5.Aria (Soprano): Bereite dir, Jesu, noch itzo die Bahn | 5:25 |
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| 14 | 6.Chorale: Wohl mir, daß ich Jesum habe | 2:40 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerCantata No.147: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Visitation), BWV147 (includes 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring')...Part 2 Work
11:23
Harry Christophers Conductor,
Michael George Bass,
The Sixteen Chorus/Choir,
Paul Nicholson Organ,
Symphony of Harmony & Invention Orchestra,
Gillian Fisher Soprano,
David James Alto,
Ian Partridge Tenor
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| 15 | 7.Aria (Tenor): Hilf, Jesu, hilf, daß ich auch dich bekenne | 3:08 |
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| 16 | 8.Recitative (Alto): Der höchsten Allmacht Wunderhand | 2:35 |
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| 17 | 9.Aria (Bass): Ich will von Jesu Wundern singen | 2:53 |
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| 18 | 10.Chorale: Jesus bleibt meine Freude (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring) | 2:47 |
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