Bach: Cantatas, BWV 82. 83, 125, 200 [Import]

Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), John Eliot Gardiner (Conductor), English Baroque Soloists (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: English Baroque Soloists
• Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner
• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
• Audio CD (July 3, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Archiv Prod Import
• ASIN: B00004U5BF
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,920 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Marking the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, John Eliot Gardiner's year-long Bach Pilgrimage continues with this program of cantatas for the Feast of the Purification of Mary. The music was written for performance on February 2 in the years 1724, 1725, and 1727, and the album preserves performances given on that same date in the year 2000 in Christchurch Priory, Dorset, England. The live sound has virtually no audience noise and is beautifully balanced, though a touch of harshness is present in the recording of countertenor Robin Tyson. The joy of God's new order in Christ is well expressed in Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde, a strong contrast to one of the most darkly beautiful of all Bach's sacred cantatas, Ich habe genug. Here the longing is for the death that will unite the singer with Christ, with bass Peter Harvey powerfully communicating all the required sorrow and passion. Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin combines choir with soloists, and intertwines joy, lament, and resignation in music performed with dignified grandeur. The disc ends with the only surviving movement of cantata BWV 200. --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gardiner Reveals!, February 9, 2002

By 

Andrew M. Klein (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bach: Cantatas, BWV 82. 83, 125, 200 (Audio CD)

Gardiner's choral conducting needs no introduction: he is simply the very best. Here, as in most of his other recent recordings of Bach's cantatas, he elicits beautiful singing and playing from his forces, breathing new life into these masterpieces. BVW 125 contains an amazing revelation (about which I've heard nothing before -- but perhaps I've been inattentive): Gustav Mahhler built the Der Abshied segment of Das Lied von der Erde on the "Ich will auch mit gebrochnen Augen" aria in this work! I knew that, before composing Das Lied, Mahler was restudying Bach, but I had no idea how closley he modelled the most moving part of Das Lied (the Der Abshied melody motiff, harmony, voicing and tempo)on what Bach wrote long before him in this aria. Amazing stuff!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving music with a message., October 9, 2007

By 

Andrea F. Biondo "The Music in my head" (Earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bach: Cantatas, BWV 82. 83, 125, 200 (Audio CD)

This is moving stuff, though I suggest listening to this recording in a slightly different order, Ich habe genug (tracks 6-10 first), then Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, (tracks 11-17), then Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde (Tracks 1-5) last. Ich habe genug is just sublime. It carries a message to us all, 'I have enough' (approximate translation). Bach was speaking for his time, with a religious perspective (making sure his bills got paid too), but today- I think a secular contemporary meaning can be derived. That is, to quote a more recent expression of wanting deliverance from 'the suffering of desire' (to take a slightly Buddist perspective), "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got", (Sinead O'Connor 1990). After listening to Ich habe genug, it is difficult to not feel like there is nothing else I need in life but the beauty of such music.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recording, January 12, 2008

By 

Teemacs (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bach: Cantatas, BWV 82. 83, 125, 200 (Audio CD)

This is another of the DG cantata CDs, released before the big falling-out between Gardiner and DG, that was actually recorded on the Pilgrimage (Christchurch Priory Church, Dorset, very much home territory for JEG).

The big hit here is the beautiful cantata for solo bass BWV82 "Ich habe genug", with its gorgeous aria "Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen". The performances are crisp, clear and well-executed. At the Amazon price, this is a bargain.