After 25 volumes of Johann Sebastian Bach's sacred cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan have found the time to make a disc of secular cantatas. J.S. Bach: Secular Cantatas BWV 210 & 211 combines one of Bach's wedding cantatas, O holder tag, with Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, the famous Coffee Cantata. Soprano Carolyn Sampson takes the solo part in O holder tag, and sings it beautifully with a very pure, "white" voice; however, it is a little too pure. One would prefer a more characterization of ...
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After 25 volumes of Johann Sebastian Bach's sacred cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan have found the time to make a disc of secular cantatas. J.S. Bach: Secular Cantatas BWV 210 & 211 combines one of Bach's wedding cantatas, O holder tag, with Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, the famous Coffee Cantata. Soprano Carolyn Sampson takes the solo part in O holder tag, and sings it beautifully with a very pure, "white" voice; however, it is a little too pure. One would prefer a more characterization of the text in a solo cantata that runs to nearly 36 minutes. It is tempting to speculate how Midori Suzuki might have sung this work, although this is not meant as a slight to Sampson, who does do a fine job overall in a treacherously difficult score. Suzuki takes Bach's instrumentation as lightly as it will go at one instrument to a part, and the predominant atmosphere of this performance is light and airy.The Coffee Cantata is marvelously well done, with the performance perfectly...
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