Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Cantatas for Soprano
Cantata No.202 (Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten) (Wedding Cantata,
date?) [21:00]
Cantata No.152 (Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn) (Sunday after Christmas,
1714) [18:11]
Cantata No.199 (Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut) (Trinity XI, 1714)
[23:28]
Carolyn Sampson (soprano)
Andreas Wolf (bass-baritone: No. 152)
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/Petra Müllejans
rec. Teldex Studio, Berlin, 2016. DDD.
Texts and translations included
HARMONIA MUNDI HMM902252
[63:03]
Reviewed as 24-bit download with pdf booklet containing texts and
translations from
eclassical.com. Subscribers stream from
Naxos Music Library.
The complete Soprano Cantatas I
Cantata No.82a (Ich habe genug) (Purification, 1727) [20:15]
Cantata No.202 (Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten) (Wedding Cantata,
date?) [19:28]
Cantata No.210 (O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit) (Wedding Cantata,
c.1741) [31:27]
Gillian Keith (soprano)
Armonico Consort/Christopher Monks
rec. St Michael’s, South Grove, London, 2016. DDD.
Texts and translations included
SIGNUM SIGCD488
[71:23]
Reviewed as 24-bit download with pdf booklet containing texts and
translations from
hyperion-records.co.uk.
The Recording of the Month accolade is for Carolyn Sampson but Gillian
Keith’s Signum recording augurs very well for the projected series on that
label.
Though by no means limited to singing Bach, Carolyn Sampson has featured in
a number of recordings of his cantatas for Harmonia Mundi, BIS, Hyperion
and SDG with the likes of Philippe Herreweghe, Masaaki Suzuki and John
Eliot Gardiner but not, I think, previously with Petra Müllejans.
Similarly Gillian Keith features on many of John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach
pilgrimage series of recordings for his own SDG label.
There are very fine rival performances of the cantatas on the Harmonia
Mundi CD, all now ascribed to the Weimar period, c.1712-14, though not
coupled as here. I yield to none in admiring Emma Kirkby, but I have a
feeling that Carolyn Sampson’s will also be my version of choice for
No.202 in future. Then I listened to Gillian Keith and found myself almost
equally entranced.
The chief competition in Cantata No.202 comes from Emma Kirkby with the
Academy of Ancient Music Chamber Ensemble and Christopher Hogwood on
mid-price Decca 4559722. Even more to the point, that classic recording
exactly duplicates the programme on the Signum recording. Whether
deliberately or not, they have chosen to go for broke with Volume I of
their series.
There’s another Emma Kirkby recording featuring Cantatas Nos. 82 and 202,
this time coupled with the secular cantata No.208 and recorded in 1981 and
1985 with The Taverner Players directed by Andrew Parrott (82 and 202) and
The Parley of Instruments directed by Roy Goodman and Peter Holman. No.82,
which exists in versions of soprano, alto and bass soloist, is sung in the
version for bass voice by David Thomas, with Emma Kirkby as soloist in
No.202 and one of the soloists in the ‘Hunt’ Cantata, BWV208.
Whether or not you like this version, released on a 2-for-1 package and
currently available on CD or download from Hyperion for just £6, will
depend on your attitude to the notorious one-to-a-part controversy. This
affects the choruses of No.208, which are sung only by the soloists and
with reduced string accompaniment, plus the insertion of two movements from
original versions of what became Brandenburg Concertos. That apart, this
is a competitive version of No.208 but David Thomas sounds too lumpy in
No.82 and even Emma Kirkby is not quite on top form in No.202. She sounds
less engaged than on her later Decca recording with Christopher Hogwood,
but even less-than-ideal Kirkby is still pretty good.
Cantata No.202 is coupled with the much less well-known Cantata No.173a and
No.36c, the secular version of the sacred Cantata No.36, on Volume 3 of the
BIS recordings of the secular cantatas. (BIS-SACD-2041 –
review). With Joanne Lunn as the attractive soloist this is a competitive
account, though her voice is sometimes a little too backward, as at the
opening where it’s covered by the oboe. All concerned clearly enjoyed
recording these works and there are not too many recordings of No.173a
apart from box sets. (Download in 16- and 24-bit sound with pdf booklet
from
eclassical.com). The latest volume of this enterprising series of the secular cantatas,
volume 8, was released on 30 June 2017: Cantatas Nos. 206 and 215
(BIS-2231, SACD or download in 16- and 24-bit sound with pdf booklet from
eclassical.com).
As an example of an old-fashioned soprano with an early period orchestra, I
listened to Agnes Giebel, recorded by Telefunken (now Teldec) with Concerto
Amsterdam and Jaap Schröder in the 1960s, as included in the USB of all
Bach’s extant works, now sold out, though you may find the odd second-hand
copy –
review. My purist colleagues would take exception to the amount of vibrato which
she employs; even so I enjoyed hearing this recording again.
Emma Kirkby is the purest toned of the singers in Cantata No.202
but after continued listening I found myself unable to decide between her
recording and those of Gillian Keith and Carolyn Sampson. Though the
Freiburgers are not quite at their best here, overall I suspect that most
listeners will prefer Carolyn Sampson’s slightly fuller tones, with Gillian
Keith tonally somewhere between Kirkby and Sampson.
This is a good opportunity to remind readers of the virtues of the series
from Masaaki Suzuki (BIS) and John Eliot Gardiner (SDG and some earlier
recordings for DG Archiv). The Suzuki is now available to download in
virtual boxes from eclassical.com at keen prices, while the equally
desirable complete Gardiner set on SDG is available to download along with
other recordings on that label from Hyperion, all
with better pdf booklets than from any other source, and again more
economically than on disc. In all three cantatas, however, Sampson need
fear no competition from very fine performances in these cycles – try
Cantata 199, track 19, Tief gebückt und voller Reu, one of the most
beautiful movements in any Bach cantata, fully the equal of the more
evocative moments in the Passions and beautifully rendered here.
Thus far the Harmonia Mundi recording seemed to be heading for Recording of
the Month status, having already been chosen as Recording of the Week on
BBC Radio 3 Record review. Then along came the Signum, enticingly billed
as the first of a planned series and going head-on with the classic Emma
Kirkby and Christopher Hogwood album. Having listened to Kirkby, Sampson
and Keith in Cantata No.202 for some considerable time, I really cannot
point you to an outright winner. I’ve had the new Signum playing on a
repeating loop while I’ve been typing up this review and at no point did I
tire of listening to it and I suspect that the same would have been true of
each of the others had I tried the experiment. The only small reservation
about the Signum is that Gillian Keith takes a little while to get warmed
up in the opening Cantata 82a, with some insecurity about how to pronounce ich. It certainly sounds as if this was recorded first because the
problem soon disappears.
In the end I suppose that couplings will be decisive. If you already have
a male-voice version of No.82, the female-voice version presents the music
in a different light, so there’s room for both. You may, for example, have
the wonderful classic recording of Nos. 82, 159 and 170 with Dame Janet
Baker, Robert Tear and John Shirley-Quirk (in No.82) with the ASMF and
Neville Marriner (mid-price Decca Eloquence 4762684 –
Bargain of the Month).
Even among soprano and alto recordings of No.82, in addition to Emma Kirkby
there’s tough competition from Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Craig Smith
(Nonesuch 755979692-2, download only, with No.199 –
review
–
review). There’s much that’s academically wrong about this recording but
Lieberson’s wonderful voice, even with an overdose of vibrato, more than
compensates. At times she reminds me of Janet Baker, which I cannot say of
René Jacobs on budget-price Harmonia Mundi, who sounds rather plummy
(HMA1951273, with No.35 and the spurious No.53). It’s not just academics,
however, who will join me in preferring Gillian Keith’s lighter, purer,
more Kirkby-like voice. Among counter-tenor versions I praised Iestyn
Davies, Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen in Nos. 54, 82 and 170 in
Christmas 2016
and I now think that I could have been even more ardent, as John Quinn was
–
Recording of the Month.
Of the other works on the Harmonia Mundi recording there’s less competition
than usual in Cantata No.152. John Eliot Gardiner recorded it in New York
at the final concert of his 2000 Bach Pilgrimage with none other than
Gillian Keith as soprano soloist, with Peter Harvey (bass). On SDG137 –
review
– the other cantatas are also for Christmastide and New Year, Nos. 28, 122,
190 and the motet BWV225. It can be downloaded for £7.99 in lossless
sound, with pdf booklet, from
hyperion-records.co.uk, replacing the defunct mp3 versions which I mentioned in
DL Roundup December 2010.
First I listened to the classic recording made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and
Concentus Musicus Wien with a boy treble and Thomas Hampson as soloists.
Revelatory in their time, these Teldec recordings by Harnoncourt and Gustav
Leonhardt now sound slightly stodgy and the demise of the handy usb version
of all Bach’s extant music means investing in a heavy 60-CD box set of the
complete cantatas, but I like to return to them, not least to this account
of Cantata No.152, released in 1986. Bach would have heard a boy in this
work and Harnoncourt’s treble, Christoph Wegmann, sounds ethereal, though a
little squeaky at times and hardly able to match an adult soprano voice.
There’s a real sense of occasion arising from the recordings on SDG137 and
I’m delighted that Hyperion have made the whole series, of which this is
one of the highlights, available so inexpensively and with much better
documentation than any earlier download. As is the case between the new
Signum and Harmonia Mundi recordings of No.202, it’s almost impossible to
choose between Gillian Keith (SDG) and Carolyn Sampson (Harmonia Mundi) in
No.152 and both are very well accompanied but I think that the latter has
the better of it by a very small margin.
I’ve already mentioned Carolyn Sampson’s wonderful account of Tief gebückt (Cantata 199). Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, coupled with
the recording of No.82 mentioned above, is wonderful but not for purists.
If No.152 is less well known, No.199 is very well represented. I’ve chosen
for comparison John Eliot Gardiner’s pre-pilgrimage recording for DG
Archive with Magdalena Kožená as soloist (4635912, with Nos. 113 and 179 –
DL Roundup August 2009), Elisabeth Watts and Harry Bicket on Harmonia Mundi HMU807550 (with No.51
and excerpts from 31, 57, 84 and 105 – download only: from
eclassical.com,
NO booklet) and Barbara Schlick with Christophe Coin (Naïve E8911, with
Nos. 85, 175 and 183 –
review
– download only: from
eclassical.com,
NO booklet). Subscribers can stream all these from
Naxos Music Library
but again without booklet.
On Naïve Barbara Schlick sings beautifully and she is very well
accompanied, with Christophe Coin directing from the violoncello piccolo, a
cross between a viola and a cello, in No.199 and three other cantatas for
which Bach specified this instrument. With very good contributions from
Andreas Scholl and Christophe Prégardien in the other cantatas, this is
well worth having, even without the booklet – texts of Bach cantatas are
readily available online. Tief gebückt is taken at a fastish tempo
– 6:41 against 7:51 from Carolyn Sampson – and much of the affective power
of the music is missed apart from a huge rubato in mid-stream, but
otherwise I enjoyed Barbara Schlick’s clear-toned singing.
Elisabeth Watts on Harmonia Mundi has been highly praised in some quarters
– an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone – and her account of Tief gebückt – 7:18 overall – is more affective than Barbara
Schlick’s but her diction and tone are far less clear, almost as if the
music were being sung by a mezzo and the general effect is unappealing.
Overall I’m almost as disappointed with this recording as my colleague
Johan van Veen, writing on his own web-page –
review.
Magdalena Kožená and John Eliot Gardiner (DG) are slower still in this aria
and it’s very much to the advantage of the music. The singing is
beautiful, too; even if Magdalena Kožená’s tone is not quite as ethereal as
Carolyn Sampson’s, this offers the strongest challenge to her of any of the
versions which I sampled and it has the logic of being coupled with two
other cantatas from the same Sunday, Trinity XI, albeit that the other two
are from a later period (1723 and 1724).
Karl Richter’s DG Archiv recordings of Bach cantatas represent the best of
an older school, directed by someone steeped in the Lutheran tradition. At
9:46 he offers by far the slowest version of Tief gebückt that I’ve
heard, yet Edith Mathis doesn’t overdo the pathos. The CD box sets which
DG released some time ago are no longer available apart from the Advent and
Christmas cantatas. The 6-disc set for the Sundays after Trinity (I) is
one which I failed to grab when they were around but I’m pleased that Qobuz have made it
available to stream: six hours of stylish performances, with the likes of
Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, which have dated yet never really date, but it’s
somewhat pricey to download at £41.20. Those content with mp3 will find
the set for £29.99 from
7digital.com.
It’s hard even for most Christians today to empathise with the extremely
penitential tone of Cantata No.199. It doesn’t really fit the Collect,
Epistle and Gospel for Trinity XI, but it’s all of a piece with Martin
Luther’s assertion in the first of his 95 Theses that the whole life of a
Christian should be one of repentance. (Dominus et magister noster Iesus Christus dicendo ‘Penitentiam agite
etc.’ omnem vitam fidelium penitentiam esse voluit.) Archbishop Cranmer bequeathed the Anglican Church a form of confession
before Mattins and Evensong couched in marvellous prose but filled with
similar self-deprecation.
It’s a vast over-simplification and I’m not expressing it very elegantly,
but Richter was imbued with the tradition that ‘there is no health in us’
and we can share that tradition through his total commitment to the music,
whereas modern interpreters such as Masaaki Suzuki and John Eliot Gardiner
– and Carolyn Sampson and Petra Müllejans on the new recording – can still
find a key for the modern listener.
It’s time for me to choose. If you are looking for just one version of
Cantata No.199 it’s a very close call between Magdalena Kožená, whose
Archiv CD is on sale for around £8.50, and Carolyn Sampson. For me the
splendid performances of Nos. 152 and 202 clinch it in favour of the new
Harmonia Mundi. If, however, you choose the DG, Gillian Keith on Volume I
of the Signum series makes a very good alternative choice for No. 202, with
a fine account of 82a to boot. You might even consider both new
recordings: I’ve enjoyed both. If you download from Hyperion the 16-bit
Signum costs just £7.99 and the 24-bit £12.00, both complete with pdf booklet. At
present the eclassical.com Harmonia Mundi download costs $13.20 in both formats, again
with pdf booklet, but the 24-bit is likely to increase by about 50% in the
near future.
Brian Wilson
