At Full Command of His Powers
K. Bowersock | Lubbock, TX | 06/05/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"All the cantatas from volume 11 of Ton Koopman's complete survey come from Bach's second year as cantor at St. Thomas Church. This is a Bach well-settled with his duties as cantor, and the music on this record show him at full command of his powers. Every cantata on volume 11 is of high quality, making it a very strong set in all; however, a few of these here are what I would call "top-shelf" cantatas, music of the highest order.
BWV 10 is one of these cantatas. It was written for the Feast of Visitation, and premiered at St. Thomas in early July, 1724. It opens with one of my favorite instrumentals, a very dark and arresting theme, one of those opening themes from the cantatas you can't miss. It also has one of the more beautiful soprano arias from the 2nd Leipzig cycle. BWV 10 was actually one of the very first cantatas I ever heard, many years ago on a dusty old LP with Karl Richter and his Munich forces (which I still love and listen to often from Richter's set of 75 on Archiv). This is a cantata that has certainly remained on my short list.
A few other top-shelfers on this set would be BWV 5, 115 and 139. All three have outstanding opening choruses, and BWV 5 has one of the very greatest bass arias he ever wrote. The remaining cantatas on these three discs are also first-rate, especially BWV 94, which contains an exceptional tenor aria.
Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam crew are at the top of the list in this music. I also have Gardiner in many of these cantatas, and although his recordings are wonderful as well, Koopman wins (this pretty much sums up my feelings in general for their sets - Gardiner's cycle is usually great, Koopman's is outstanding.) The success here stems in no small part from his wonderful vocalists. Sibylla Rubens has a lovely voice, ideally suited for this music. Rubens and our bass here, Klaus Mertens, both bring very imposing voices to the recording, which works great with Koopman's lighter-toned Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.
Koopman's Bach is more intimate than Gardiner's, and I believe this to be one of the greatest benefits of the cycle. Clarity is praised above all here, and it's a wonderful way to hear the cantatas. Volume 11 in particular is wonderful, it was the first purchase in my collecting of this entire cycle (which I am still working on), and I really think it got me off to the right start.
The detailed and informative liner notes are written by probably the world's greatest living Bach authority, Christoph Wolff - hey, it's like getting a recommendation for the cycle by the expert himself! Taped in an Amsterdam cathedral in the fall of 1999, the recorded sound is perfect, and the set's updated artwork is beautiful. The cantatas contain some of Bach's greatest music, and I certainly look forward to my continued collecting of this stunning cycle.
"