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Bach: Cantatas Pour La Nativité / Milnes, Mauch, White, Daniels, Van Der Kamp

Release Date: 10/28/2008
Label: Atma Classique Catalog #: 2403 Spars Code: n/a
Composer:  Johann Sebastian Bach Performer:  Harry Van der Kamp ,  Monika Mauch Conductor:  Eric Milnes Orchestra/Ensemble:  Montreal Baroque Orchestra Number of Discs: 1
Recorded in: Multi Length: 1 Hours 12 Mins.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

3240200.az_BACH_Cantatas_61_1.html

BACH Cantatas: No. 61; 1,3,4 No. 122; 1,2,3,4 No. 123; 2,3,4 No. 182 2,3,4 • Eric Milnes (org, cond); Monika Mauch (sop); 1 Read more Matthew White (ct); 2 Charles Daniels (ten); 3 Harry van der Kamp (bs); 4 Montreal Baroque (period instruments) • ATMA 2403 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 72:16 Text and Translation)


I will not review the various aspects of the series here under consideration; George Chien has explored them admirably in Fanfare 29:6 and 31:1, covering the first three issues of what is apparently going to be a rather extensive (and maybe even complete, according to the notes, and all SACD) series. The groupings so far have been according to religious theme: Volume 1 covered St. John the Baptist, Volume 2 touched on St. Michael, Volume 3 was about Mary of Nazareth, and this one examines cantatas of the Nativity, so maybe we have the beginnings of a sequential liturgical order. However, the titles are a little misleading as we have some other topics covered as well. No. 182, “King of Heaven, welcome!” is in fact a work designated for Palm Sunday, while the lovely and devoted melodies of No. 123, “Dearest Emmanuel, Ruler of the Righteous” were intended for the feast of the Epiphany, certainly Nativity-related and much more integral to that celebration than in the east, where the baptism of Christ took precedence.


One of the most popular of the Nativity cantatas is certainly No. 122, performed the Sunday after Christmas, “The new-born baby,” with its motet-like opening chorus and flavored orchestral ritornellos that underline its pastoral nature. The recitative with three recorders playing the choir of angels is one of the most unusual and touching moments in all of Bach. No. 61, “Now come, Savior of the heathens” is an early Weimar cantata, dating from 1714, where the opening chorale is placed in the context of a French overture, its processional feeling perfectly suited to the first Sunday of Advent. Bach even submitted this work as an examination piece for the post of Cantor at the Thomas School; it was rejected as too theatrical.


Though the Rifkin doctrine is going to be exalted in the series, there is something delightfully unaffected about these performances that keep drawing me back to them. Perhaps it is the lack of “big” names (though Charles Daniels certainly has a following), or maybe the sense that all involved here are madly in love with the composer and his music, are not setting out to prove any points, and present these works with love and affection—I don’t know. I certainly plan to keep up with it. The sound is very expressive and lively, though some may be put off by the fact that the full “chorus” blends rather than stands out from the orchestra. Singers are one to a part, and I’ll leave it at that, while the orchestra is about 22, conductor Milnes filling in at the organ. We seem to be in the midst of a Bach cantata binge, and that is always welcome.


FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter
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