There are only so many different ways to record Bach's cantatas. You can record only the hits -- Neville Marriner and Philippe Herreweghe -- or you can record all of them -- Helmuth Rilling and Ton Koopman -- or you can record a full year's cycle -- Karl Richter and Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande. In this fourth volume of his cycle, Kuijken takes on the first four cantatas of the year: the celebratory New Year's Cantata Herr Gott, dich loben wir; the reflective cantata for the Sunday after New Year Schau lieber Gott, ...
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There are only so many different ways to record Bach's cantatas. You can record only the hits -- Neville Marriner and Philippe Herreweghe -- or you can record all of them -- Helmuth Rilling and Ton Koopman -- or you can record a full year's cycle -- Karl Richter and Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande. In this fourth volume of his cycle, Kuijken takes on the first four cantatas of the year: the celebratory New Year's Cantata Herr Gott, dich loben wir; the reflective cantata for the Sunday after New Year Schau lieber Gott, wie meine Feind; the festive cantata for the Feast of the Epiphany Sir werden aus Saba alle kommen; and the austere cantata for the Sunday after Epiphany Mein liebster Jesus ist verlorn. The superb instrumental forces are small -- four violins including Kuijken, a viola and a bass, a horn, plus pairs of oboes or oboe d'amores and an organ and bass for continuo -- and the vocal forces are smaller -- the four soloist also serve as the four-voice chorus. The effect is quite intimate...
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