Customer Reviews

Bach: Voices Of Angels

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The quality of these pieces and performances is exceptional (assuming you like the 1970s-style attempts at authentic performance). This disk was the first of my Harnoncourt / Leonhardt purchases; unfortunately, every single one of these is now also sitting in my rack inside the (complete) cantata from whence it was taken. All sung in German, of course, except for the B minor mass, which is sung in Latin.

But everyone must start somewhere, and this is a fantastic place to start. Among other things, it contains (numbers from):

* The Matthew Passion

* The Christmas Oratorio

* Cantata 147, which contains "Jesu Joy of man's desiring"

* The B minor Mass

* My Heart ever Faithful (Mein glaubiges Herze) - lovely.

It's a great gift idea for the subversion of friends and family who seem on the brink of becoming Bach afficionados, especially if they like choral/vocal music.

If you enjoy the music of Bach and/or the sound of boy sopranos then you will enjoy this CD. It presents some of Bach's best and best loved songs, sung with expert precision by some very fine boy sopranos--a few of them have truly beautiful voices, and all of them are good. There is a good balance of solo pieces and chorales sung by men and boys together. One word, though: if you are accustomed to British or American boy singers then you will find these continental European ones something quite different--the boys are trained in a style more similar to opera singers and their voices are have more vibrato than their English counterparts--the sound is perhaps less "angelic", but fuller and richer. This is a worthy purchase for any true Bach fan or someone who really appreciates the beauty of an unchanged male voice. Top-rate quality of singing throughout.

These are undoubtedly beautiful perfomrance, notably on the choral works. The tempo isn't too fast nor too slow, and the balance between "authentic" and modern use of intrumentation is nearly ideal.
However:
Shopper, you may not be aware of this but Harnaocourt/leonhart (the conductors of this album) have produced a nearly comprehensive 60 CD bach cantata set. So why did they choose these oft heard cantatas when there are several performances in their collection surperior to these. I highly recommend listening to their cantata no.80 (not found on this CD).
All in all this is a great CD.

This is a quality recording with the sweetest voices...made me go and get some of the music to sing!

These recordings are taken mostly from the Harnoncourt/Leonhardt complete sacred Bach cantatas project, with several selections from the Saint Matthew Passion included as well. While I generally prefer women's voices to boys' in this repertoire (not authentic, I know), this CD makes an excellent case for using boys' voices in this music. The young soloists are all remarkably assured and sing with lovely, full tone, much different from the sound of English choirboys (most of the soloists here are German, Austrian, or Dutch). There are particularly lovely accounts of "Mein glaubiges Herze," "Blute nur," and "Flosst, mein Heiland" included here. So if you are looking to sample Bach's vocal works, or wish to hear the pure sound of boy sopranos, or simply want some lovely music, this is a disc to try.

If there are truly angels amoung us, this is what they must sound like; beautiful voices without spot or blemish that soar through the heavenly hights! Bach wrote some of the most beautiful music of the baroque era, if not all time and this is some of the very best! The selections on this recording are flawlessly performed by these young boys. Such talent at a such a young age is enough to move this old tenor to work all the harder!

It is true that you can get the whole collection of Bach's contatas for a reasonable sum but that would about fill up my little Ipod. This is a good recording for you Ipod nuts like me that want a good highlight's CD to download into Itunes. Enjoy!

If you're interested in reviewing a fine selection of Bach's music for young voices, this is it. Included are numerous choirs performing choral pieces along with an equal number of solos. The age and quality of the original recordings is a minor issue to me, though it may matter to others. A few bucks brings a lot of Bach.

Good stuff. I have many of these peices separately in other CDs of Bach's cantatas under the direction of Leonhardt and Harnoncourt. The boy sopranos in this cd are wonderful. Great balance between instrumentalists and vocalists is a hallmark of the Harnoncourt/Leonhardt style. I highly recommend this CD.

I welcome feedback on this and all reviews at wstrnlibwarrior@yahoo.com