Several complete cycles of Bach's cantatas were launched by authentic-performance ensembles in the early 2000s, with many of the resulting recordings being marketed as individual discs as well. Why this sudden cornucopia of product focusing on a historically slow-selling segment of the master's output? Could it be the modishness of devotional feeling these days? In any event, the set by the Bach Collegium Japan and its conductor Masaaki Suzuki can stand up to anything else out there, and this release, volume 26 in the ...
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Several complete cycles of Bach's cantatas were launched by authentic-performance ensembles in the early 2000s, with many of the resulting recordings being marketed as individual discs as well. Why this sudden cornucopia of product focusing on a historically slow-selling segment of the master's output? Could it be the modishness of devotional feeling these days? In any event, the set by the Bach Collegium Japan and its conductor Masaaki Suzuki can stand up to anything else out there, and this release, volume 26 in the series coming out on Sweden's BIS label, makes a good place to step in and sample the series as a whole. The disc contains three cantatas from the year 1724, when Bach undertook to produce a new cantata, based on a chorale or hymn that everyone knew, for every Sunday and Feast Day throughout the year; the first of the three, Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele, BWV 180 (Adorn yourself, O Soul), is one of Bach's best-loved cantatas. Although the meatier attacks that come naturally to Baroque...
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