Christine Schafer Bach - Wedding Cantatas / Musica Antiqua Koln / Reinhard Goebel

Johann Sebastian Bach (Artist), Reinhard Goebel (Artist), Christine Schafer (Artist), Musica Antiqua Koln (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 12, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00001X59I
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #415,862 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Christine Schäfer's bright, silvery soprano is a perfect vehicle for these solo cantatas. The adventurous Musica Antiqua Köln supports her in lively readings, full of spirit and animation. Schäfer sails through the technical demands with ease, but she also brings a welcome warmth and sensitivity to the texts. Some of the movements are taken at a clip that may surprise, but the performers bring it off with aplomb. The familiar Cantata No. 51 actually isn't a wedding cantata, but its joyous spirit fits the mood, so it's welcome all the same, especially in a performance of such agility and precision. The cutesy packaging is unnecessary (the disc's sleeve has a heart-shaped centerpiece)--but who cares when everything else is so good? --Dan Davis

Product Description

(4596212)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sorry Schäfer..., December 18, 1999

By 

D. Gammelgard "dave_ga" (Falun, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christine Schafer Bach - Wedding Cantatas / Musica Antiqua Koln / Reinhard Goebel (Audio CD)

This is how it is. Christine Schäfer should not sing early music. Bach is not her thing (neither is Mozart by the way). There is a huge contrast between the oustanding ensemble and the actual solo artist of the record. Her constant and sometimes hysteric vibrato is not really appropriate and she has no sense of phrasing. Christine Schäfer is a great singer but she should focus more on romantic music and leave the earlier works to those who understands how to perform it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Horrible packaging, mixed collaboration, July 23, 2006

By 

Biberfan "Fan of Biber" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Christine Schafer Bach - Wedding Cantatas / Musica Antiqua Koln / Reinhard Goebel (Audio CD)

I'm one of MAK's biggest fans. And BWV 51 is one of my favorite Bach cantatas. Before I listened to the record, I was disappointed with the package. It's not on Archiv, but DG. The packaging and pictures are silly. Why this presentation? The little heart inside holding the disc? Why spend so much money to market the CD like this? Does Schäfer have a following from elswhere where this packaing would appeal?

The music is made up of three cantatas by Bach - perhaps not all his best, but there is good variety here. The recording quality is good. The instrumental ensemble, and tempi are all excellent. The singing, however, is a mixed bag. In faster movements, Schäfer is not bad; she's got a strong voice and a silvery tone. Yet, in slower movements a characteristically-non-baroque sound comes from her mouth. Goebel has a habit of collaborating with vocalists and not telling them a thing on how to perform... it's like the ensemble and singer came together which each their own ideas on how to perform the works.

This isn't a bad CD, but is not my favorite. At times Schäfer grabs for some high notes and is out of tune; the athletic BWV 51 however, is better done without these errors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Behold, I Tell You a Mystery ...", August 29, 2011

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Christine Schafer Bach - Wedding Cantatas / Musica Antiqua Koln / Reinhard Goebel (Audio CD)

Yeah, yeah, I know... that line comes from Handel, not Bach. But I have two mysteries I'm trying to solve. The first, the one that brought me reluctantly back to this old recording, is the mystery of why Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln never seriously recorded any of the cantatas of JS Bach! MAK's recordings of cantatas by Johann David Heinichen and other peers of Bach are so superb -- so ears-and-tail better than anybody else's -- that I would sell my soul (Goebel presumably sold his long ago, for his phenomenal violin virtuosity) to have a batch of the best Bach by MAK.

The second mystery is why anybody ever supposed that Christine Schäfer was a concert-worthy singer, compounded by the wonderment of why Reinhard Goebel would have collaborated with her on his only recording of Bach cantatas! She's awful! Her voice is wiry and uneven, her tuning is iffy, and her vibrato is scary! Her recording of Mozart arias isn't a whit better, and her performance on DVD as Lulu in Berg's opera is just plain nasty. If Ms Schäfer weren't already rather inexplicably well known, I'd advise her not to give up her day job.