Customer Reviews

Ian Bostridge: Europa Galante - Fabio Biondi : J.S. Bach : Cantatas & Arias

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This is the perfect recording for anyone who already loves the vocal music of J.S. Bach or for anyone who feels that Bach's music is too mathematical and non-emotional. Ian Bostridge is, arguably, the most emotional of all "serious" singers today. He interprets everything he performs and brings his own insights to his performances, whether, for example, the music be written by Bach or another of the singer's obvious favorites, Benjamin Britten. The music on this album, usually sung by bass or soprano, sounds very right for tenor, esp. for Bostridge's light, almost unearthly, sound. He is beautifully accompanied by an ensemble called Europa Galante which also plays three of Bach's sinfonias for orchestra, without voice. This is a stunning album which I highly recommend.

This CD is stunning. I am a cellist, and I originally bought it for some of the Bach pieces that featured prominent instrumental parts, but from the start, I was spellbound. The first selection, BWV 82A, is one of the most beautiful works of Bach that I have ever heard. Ian Bostridge's voice is spellbinding. I am looking forward to hearing much more, especially his lieder CDs.

There is a very interesting and thoughtful essay accompanying this disc, by Michel Roubinet and quite superbly translated into genuine English by Hugh Graham. In it the author draws attention to some aspects of the pietist tradition of Lutheranism, in particular its strong emphasis on the worshipper as an individual, and even more particularly the recurring theme of death as the gateway to each individual's final fulfilment. This was the spirit of much of the poetry that Bach set in his cantatas, and it must have been to a great extent the particular strain of belief that underlay the transcendental musical inspiration of Bach himself. Bach knew love and he knew grief and he believed both to be God's dispensation. He knew his own talent, he believed that to be God's gift, and he worked to perfect it with an industry that would have been astonishing in someone who had far more perfecting to do. The spirit of his music is introspective, but it seems to me completely untouched by guilt or fear. Bach's talent, unlike Milton's, was not death to hide because for him death held no terrors.

A review of this recital in a Sunday newspaper was phrased in such extravagant terms of praise that I noted it as something to acquire. I am relieved to calculate that this review can only have been five years ago, so long does it seem that I have been failing to do anything about it, but the name of Ian Bostridge registered firmly with me, and I now own the disc with a good idea, obtained in the intervening period, of why the original reviewer was so impressed. Bostridge is not only highly accomplished, he has an exceptional voice in the first place. It is what I think of as a `true' tenor, as opposed to the `mezzo-tenor' timbre of Schreier or Padmore. In spite of this Bostridge has a quite remarkable low register, something that he needs frequently in Bach and nowhere more on this disc than in Ich Habe Genug, where he adapts the soprano version and shows his self-assurance by leading off with it. There is more than an hour's music here, it is all music of much the same type, but between composer and interpreters the experience was over in no time. Bostridge seems to me to hit the right expression in every piece without exception, and he is admirably offset by the Europa Galante group, not just the instrumentalists but also the three singers who perform the final chorale in Ich Armer Mensch.

In addition to the arias, recitatives and the one chorus, there are three short instrumental numbers, the disc being rounded off with a sinfonia from the Peasant Cantata, providing an unexpected and pleasant contrast to the unrelieved devoutness of the rest of it. The recorded tone is admirable, and the liner-note is of real value. Apart from anything else, the translation by Hugh Graham puts his fellow practitioners to shame. If you read the note in English without realising it is a translation, as I did, you would never know, or at least I never suspected.

I suppose it is slightly unusual for a young artist to introduce himself with an exhibition disc consisting entirely of music that is not only great but deeply serious and even solemn as well. However one of the most extraordinary things about Bach is just how strong his appeal has always been and always looks like being. The technical difficulty of his music that once seemed formidable seems so no longer, and in some ways he is easier to interpret successfully than most composers of similar stature. That does not detract in the slightest from what Bostridge has achieved here, and I would suggest that admirers of both great music and great singing would do well to be less dilatory about obtaining this disc than I was.

I have cherished this recording for a long time, but never reviewed it, perhaps because the previous reviews are excellent. Yet this is the recording through which I discovered the artistry of Ian Bostridge. Artistry really is the word as it is never just the voice as exquisite as it is; it is always also, and crucially, his interpretation. I too was spellbound immediately, I too found the music achingly beautiful, and I too heard a longing reminiscent of love songs. Several years and many Bostridge albums later, it is still one of my favourites. There is an inexplicable intimacy as well as universalism to this music. It is an album to which I find myself returning in all seasons, in all moods, finding it always fresh and mesmerizing.

Can't get enough of this recording!
This combined genius of composer, instrumentalists and singer will grab your heart and soul and not let go until the last note has rung out.
I have many Europa Galante CDs and this is my newest favorite one, no doubt.

Bach, Biondi and his orchestra are a perfect match.
Add Ian Bostridge to the mix and start to weep...
This is so beautifully interpreted and recorded, it stays in your ears and mind forever and you will go back listening to it many times and again.
The musicians and sound engineers on this CD truly capture Bach's unique ways of expressing himself through his amazing musical insights and genius.
I grew up in Austria and to be able to understand the words and their meaning together with the music leans heavily on my soul.
J.S.Bach's love and devotion to his lord is truly apparent with these compositions and it wrenches my heart to be made aware yet again that this man once produced such strong emotions through his art, belief and awareness in something bigger than him.

There is a video clip of this recording session on Youtube.

BOSTRIDGE COMMUNICATES BACH WITH ESPECIAL JOY!
In the booklet insert with this disc, Michel Roubinet emphasizes Bach's theme of death in the cantatas, which is a natural subject for religious and liturgical works, stressing as they do man's continued struggle with mortal existence and his possible ultimate salvation in the afterlife. But Bach's music is anything but morbid or depressing. The ten cantatas, excerpts, and arias sung on this disc by Bostridge are filled with hope and reassurance and BOSTRIDGE COMMUNICATES!!

Bostridge's unique sound is perfect for this Bach program, for the timbre is ethereal and conveys a hollow distance that identifies less with the character and more with the spirit of the subject. His singing captures the 'disembodied' presence. Roubinet clearly expresses this in the liner notes, stating the fact that these cantatas picture the mortal somewhere between resignation to the world and the ultimate union with Christ - the theme that links every selection herein.

In contrast to the bass voice, which is frequently associated with flesh-and-blood characters such as Jesus and Peter, the tenor in Bach is often a disembodied prescence. To this supple, even-toned voice are entrusted the arias which may be properly called, poetic and rhetorical illustrations with the purpose of making evident, and so to speak palpable, this or that aspect of faith or of the life of the believer. The tenor voice becomes that of the repentant sinner, and thus of hope.

Beginning the recording with the Cantata "Ich habe genug"(It is enough.) was very clever programming because after hearing it, the listener has to keep listening; it is so mesmerizing. Ian's voice combined with the lovely and lush tone of the flute is almost hypnotic. Biondi's skillful violin playing is exciting as shown in the Aria:"Enbarme dich!Lass die Tranen"(Have mercy on me); and also in the "SinfoniaBWV212". On this disc there are ten cantatas, excerpts and arias listed in the line-up information.

Bostridge is ably accompanied by 'Europa Galante' led by Fabio Biondi. Although Biondi has been criticized for his excessive zeal and breakneck tempos, but here he provides the kind of Bach with whom we are familiar, set to a mostly relaxed pace yet still enthusiastic.

And, moreover, he keeps his instrumental forces well out of the way of the solo singer.

This was recorded in a chapel in Parma, Italy, in March of 2000. The audio has the distinction of sounding big, open, and reverberant in a natural way, with no distortion of vocal or instrumental color. A great addition for the 'Bach-a-holic' (that's me!).

Liner notes and full text included.

This is an impressive DVD, both instrumentally and vocally. I'm no authority on voices but Bostridge's seems excellent and well-matched to the material. I note the Amazon reviews were very positive, except for one dour fellow who complained that Bostridge's voice wasn't suited to Baroque music. However, he doesn't say why. And who today knows exactly what a Baroque tenor would have sounded like? Not to mention that some Baroque pieces were for castrati who certainly don't exist in the modern world. It's been said that back in the Baroque era 70 percent of all opera singers were castrati. So I guess it could be said that back then everyone was going nuts for the castrati, who no longer had them. :-)

In any case, however, Bostridge sounds just fine to me. I do note that in Ich habe genug the flute is used instead of the oboe, and of course as an oboist I would have preferred the oboe. But no big deal. :-)

As it turned out, the flute player's period instrument has just about the worst intonation of all the woodwinds in the group, including at least two or three notes that were too bright almost to the point of being out of control. The oboe's was much better and Baroque oboes' intonation often left a lot to be desired.

Overall, this seems a good selection of Bach cantatas and arias, which, until the advent of various period music groups, such as Europa Galante on this DVD, always seemed to be neglected.

These pieces often being very short (I note a couple of them are called Sinfonia although only a couple of minutes in length), that fact has an odd effect on Baroque compositions, including Bach's, which often filled up pages of material with much formal argumentation in order to preserve symmetry. So with such short pieces the composer could "let it all hang out" to some extent and not worry so much about formal structural requirements, resulting in some of their most lyrical pieces, although there is certainly some formal fugue material here. But it's less rigid and formal than one sees in the big works which are so famous.

I always think of Baroque fugues when I walk down the main aisle of a Gothic Church. The super-imposed rhythms of arches for the main aisle, clerestory and gallery (the second and third stories) of a Gothic church have much in common with Baroque counterpoint. There's a reason why music and architecture have been said to be the most similar of all the arts.

This is the first time I leave a review in Amazon. I got this CD a few days ago and ever since I've been listening every day and whole day. This CD brought me a great Joy of discovering another Bach,a well never run dry. Ian's voice is sublime. I thought his voice is a bit soft in the beginning but with time I appreciate the deapth, texture and power in it more and more. I get never bored with this. Great work!