Customer Reviews

J.S. Bach: Sacred Cantatas for Alto

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I liked the sound of Marianne Beate Kielland's voice and musicianship in this same group's CD of the Bach B Minor Mass that came out some time ago. And I looked forward to this collection of solo alto cantatas by Bach. But I must say that I quickly tired of the sound of Ms Kielland's voice, largely because, although she handles it well, it has a white, almost hooty sound that becomes tiresome fairly quickly. At times, in fact, I could imagine I was listening to a male countertenor, not much of a recommendation in my opinion.

Still, there are some lovely things on this disc, mostly from the orchestra, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra under the direction of its long-time director, Helmut Müller-Brühl. Special mention must be made of the organist, Harald Hoeren, for his bits in 'Vernugte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust' BWV 170 where the organ comes out of the continuo group and acts rather as a solo (obbligato) instrument, and even more so in the organ-concerto-like 'Sinfonia' (overture) to 'Gott soll allein mein Herze haben' BWV 169. Also, the oboe d'amore player, Christian Hommel, deserves special mention.

No texts are provided, but they can easily be obtained by a little searching on the Internet.

So, although there is something to enjoy here, I think I won't be coming back to this disc very often.

Scott Morrison