The three cantatas recorded by Natalie Dessay and Le Concert d’Astrée,
directed by Emmanuelle Haïm, are amongst Bach’s most popular.
Two points should be noted though. Ich habe genug is heard
in its version for soprano and flute whilst the version of Mein
Herze schwimmt im blut is the 1723 revision.
On the question
of the instrumental tapestry let me first say that Emmanuelle
Haïm and her forces have achieved a marvellous balance between
exultation and expressive warmth. There are no tempo changes
that proved distracting, no supple nuances that prove, on repeated
hearing, to be jarring or extraneous to the musical phraseology
– I note this because it has sometimes proved to be the case
in her recordings, or some that I’ve heard. Instead there is
a strength and seriousness of purpose allied to a sure feeling
for sonority and textual detail that I find utterly commendable.
Ich habe genug
is better known in its guise for bass and oboe. Here the
pure-toned flute, played so deftly by Alexis Kossenko, and Dessay’s
intelligence and musicality, her surety in phraseology and in
applying apposite weight, bears rich rewards. Both recitatives
are well paced and there is great consoling generosity in her
singing of the great central aria. It is necessarily, perhaps,
less sombre in the soprano than in the bass version, a vision
that is imbued with a celestial purity rather than clay-rich
nobility. Incidentally I think Hans Hotter himself would have
approved of the tempo, which is relaxed, unlike so many period
performances, which are – one feels it in one’s bones and sinews
– too fast. And I don’t except David Daniels in that either.
The one thing I would point out – as an observation, not a criticism
– is that the beautifully prepared lead into the B section ushers
in a passage that, tempo-wise and expressively, offers little
real contrast with the surrounding material. It doesn’t, as
it can, offer a revealing shock. It is consonant. Perhaps some
listeners will find that disappointing. So too the final aria
– which is moulded into a uniform joy, tracing a journey of
refined elation.
Both the other cantatas
share the considerable virtues enshrined in the performance
of Ich habe genug. The 1730 setting of Jauchzet Gott
in allen Landen allows one to hear the excellent trumpet
playing of Neil Brough. Dessay’s vaunted virtuosity is more
in evidence here where her divisions are put to the test and
where her concluding Alleluias bring the work to a resplendent
and moving conclusion. Mein Herze schwimmt im blut allows
us to bear witness to Dessay’s searing recitative - Ich lege
mich in diese Wunden is especially taxing
and powerful, though I can imagine some may find it too histrionic.
Very occasionally her topmost notes are a fraction pinched but
it didn’t for me detract from the strong sense of identification
she imparts to the music. One can feel this from the fifty-two
minute bonus DVD in which a hand held camera tracks her and
the performances through some of the recording footage. At first
I thought the gorgeous candles in Paroisse Notre-Dame du Liban
were guttering in the dark – until I realised it was Dessay’s
extravagantly quick hand gestures. She recites a French translation
of the text once more, just before she sings it, to further
imprint textual meaning into her performances.
The notes are first
class and the recording is really beautifully – clear and not
too resonant but with a warm bloom to the sound. Fine engineering
work complements excellent, sometimes individual singing.
Jonathan Woolf
see also Review
by Margarida Mota-Bull
Natalie Dessay
(soprano) 
