Bach: Ich ruh zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 177 / Israel hoffe auf den Herrn BWV 131 / Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten BWV 93
SDG's release of Bach Cantatas for the Fourth and Fifth Sundays after Trinity opens with BWV 24 Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, recorded in Tewkesbury Abbey as part of The Cheltenham Festival. A far earlier piece follows, BWV 185 Barmherziges herze der ewigen Liebe, composed in Weimar in 1715 and revived by Bach in Leipzig in 1723. Strikingly different in mood is BWV 177 Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, composed in 1732, a chorale cantata based on Agricola's hymn set unaltered and with no recitatives.
The remaining items, including all of CD 2, were recorded in Mühlhausen, where a twenty-two year old Bach took up his second professional post. It lasted for just one year, from June 1707 to 1708. This programme includes BWV 71 Gott ist mein König. There is nothing else quite like Gott ist mein König in Bach' oeuvre. No other work of his is laid out on such a grand scale in terms of its deployment of four separate instrumental 'choirs', set against a vocal consort of four singers, an optional Capelle of ripienists and an organ.
"With the Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner's year-long crusade around Europe with the Bach cantatas at the start of the millennium continues to deliver rewards. High-class singing and orchestral playing gives his Bach a distinctive sheen..."" (The Financial Times)
"A sublime conclusion to Gardiner's year-long Bach marathon: tender, awesome, profound and intimate. The support, as ever, from the Monteverdi Choir and the winsome playing of the English Baroque Soloists is exemplary." (The Times on SDG137
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Price: $48.98