MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Crotchet


Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Cantatas
Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen BWV 51 (1730) [16:35]
Ich habe genug BWV 82a (1727 revised 1730) [24:14]
Mein Herze schwimmt im blut BWV 199 (1714 revised 1723) [22:52]
Natalie Dessay (soprano)
Le Concert d’Astrée/Emmanuelle Haïm
rec. Paroisse Notre-Dame du Liban, January and February 2008
includes 52 minute bonus DVD of footage from the recording sessions in ESTI colour; NTSC 16:9, disc format DVD5, region free.
VIRGIN CLASSICS 5193142 [63:35]
Experience Classicsonline


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

 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.