The Bach Cantatas

[milk]

OVPP Cantatas? None that I know of that I like nearly as much as Kuijken. Perhaps TVPP Veldhoeven and the NBV will get into cantatas... that would be lovely, given their Passion, CO, and MBminor recordings.

The Kuijken is so immediate. I just love that immediacy. I bought a bunch of Suzuki but I've lost the taste for it. The Rifkin is nice but the sound quality is a little flat.

[Marc]

[....]
Still, I was hoping to also have some more of the "big hits." So, I have the Rifkin recording. Any other recommendations for OVPP?

Have a go at Cantus Cölln with Konrad Junghänel.
Although sometimes the tempi are a bit too fast (for my taste), I would recommend this one:



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004R7PX

I think it will satisfy your need for immediacy :

But there's more to enjoy:

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/CantusColln.htm

[Wakefield]

But there's more to enjoy:

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/CantusColln.htm

Unfortunately, they haven't recorded more cantatas, as far I can see. I specially like their Lutheran masses (maybe a little bit Italianate in spirit for some tastes, though). 

[HIPster]

I was hoping to also have some more of the "big hits." So, I have the Rifkin recording. Any other recommendations for OVPP?

Haven't heard these (yet), but Montreal Baroque has some nice looking releases:

[asin]B000CCU8G2[/asin]

[asin]B000BM3MNE[/asin]

[asin]B000L213VW[/asin]

[asin]B001F1YC2K[/asin]

[milk]

Have a go at Cantus Cölln with Konrad Junghänel.
Although sometimes the tempi are a bit too fast (for my taste), I would recommend this one:



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004R7PX

I think it will satisfy your need for immediacy :

But there's more to enjoy:

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/CantusColln.htm

Oh yes. This is quite good. I like it very much. And 106 is certainly one of the greatest hits.

[milk]

Haven't heard these (yet), but Montreal Baroque has some nice looking releases:

These look promising. Thanks.

[milk]

The releases I've got are quite nice. If you get the drift.

I'm still making my way through the Kuijken series. I have six of them. I think I will eventually
get interested in these.

[milk]

I'm not sure that was my drift.  Let's try again:

Kuijken rocks your socks of!!  These are perfectly pretty.

So I will savor the Kuijken!

[dimmer]

People might be interested that a new volume of the Gardiner series, covering the cantatas for Ascension Day, has just been released. Seems that the original concert was not well recorded, so the cantatas had to wait for this recording last year to complete the series. The single disk sounds lively and  is certainly well up to the standard you expect from Gardiner, but the alto singing is sounding a little flat and lacking in tonal quality to me. But overall its a very nice end to the best of the Bach cantata series (and I say that as a collector mainly of Suzuki - who also has a new volume 53 out at the same time).



http://www.monteverdi.co.uk/shop/albums/cantatas/28

and


http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=885949

[SonicMan46]

..............Bach cantata series (and I say that as a collector mainly of Suzuki - who also has a new volume 53 out at the same time).

 

Well, I bought into the 'Anniversary Editions' of the Suzuki recordings (4 boxes) - pic added above is the 4th box (coming in 10 volumes each) which goes up to Vol. 40 - so, wondering now that he is past 50, will another 10 disc box be released -

[dimmer]

Well, I bought into the 'Anniversary Editions' of the Suzuki recordings (4 boxes) - pic added above is the 4th box (coming in 10 volumes each) which goes up to Vol. 40 - so, wondering now that he is past 50, will another 10 disc box be released -

Too late for me! That set of boxes was fantastic value - 40 CDs for the price of 9. I jumped in at that point too, even if they weren't SACD. But I have been buying all the individual disks since then...

[elotito]

I'm just starting to dig in to the cantatas and I think I'm going with Suzuki. Are there any particular volumes that are better than others? It's a bit overwhelming trying to decide where to start...at the beginning with volume one; randomly; highest rated cantatas?

[jlaurson]

I'm just starting to dig in to the cantatas and I think I'm going with Suzuki. Are there any particular volumes that are better than others? It's a bit overwhelming trying to decide where to start...at the beginning with volume one; randomly; highest rated cantatas?

Suzuki is always neat, in every sense of the word, and has improved considerably, to my ears, over the last twenty or fifteen volumes.

Yes... I think generally the later volumes are better than the earlier ones...
Especially:

Volume 34
Volume 38
Volume 39
Volume 41
Volume 42
Volume 47
Volume 49
Volume 52 &
Volume 53


assorted web-perusing:

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/05/ich-hatte-viel-bekummernis-bach.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2008/12/bach-cantatas-on-record-james-bowman.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/03/weinen-klagenherreweghes-new-bach.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/08/dip-your-ears-no-40.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/09/dip-your-ears-83.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-recordings-of-2009-9.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/04/reviewed-not-necessarily-recommended_05.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/09/dip-your-ears-83.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-7.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/06/dip-your-ears-no-35.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-recordings-of-2008-almost-list.html

[elotito]

Thanks jlaurson, that's great and lots to read up on and to get started with!

[milk]

Vol. 16. Unfortunately, we must be nearing the end of this series.

[mc ukrneal]

What would people recommend for 147? Any standouts?

[Mandryka]

What would people recommend for 147? Any standouts?

Eric Milnes with Montreal Baroque. This is a nice cantata, with that crazy Chorale, Wohl mir, daß ich Jesum habe.

[mc ukrneal]

Thank you both. I think I like the Koopman best. Some of them really motor!!

[Octave]

Please excuse vulgar product gab interruption:



I am really thinking about getting this Gardiner cantatas set [for the moment only visible iic at Amazon UK], encompassing his "Pilgrimage" series and four discs from DG/Archiv (which I think I already have in that 22cd red box that was issue a couple+ years ago).  I've really liked this clutch of older (DG/Archiv) cantatas recordings, but I wonder if that's all I need from Gardiner....especially if I have a chance to get an omnibus of the Suzuki recordings, many of which I've spent a lot of time with and really like, smoothness and all.  On the other hand, one really probably cannot have too many cantatas recordings.  And I await the chance to own Karl Richter's, and that's one I must have if I can get it. 
It's rather nice for this to be one of the pressing problems in my life.  I should remember this moment next time things get bad.

My searches showed a bit of discussion on the Gardiner series from a couple years ago; maybe there are some fresh opinions, even in light of releases, acquistions, and listening (not just to Gardiner) done even since then?

This should be no surprise to anyone, but it does seem that Bis is determined to issue a compendium of the Suzuki; per an email from Bis CEO Robert von Bahr:

We will eventually bring out a Boxed set with the Cantatas, one way or the other, that's for sure, but how it will look and when, I cannot yet say.

Cantatas are a harsh addiction.  The phonograph needle and the damage done.

[jlaurson]

Please excuse vulgar product gab interruption:

I am really thinking about getting this Gardiner cantatas set [for the moment only visible iic at Amazon UK], encompassing his "Pilgrimage" series and four discs from DG/Archiv (which I think I already have in that 22cd red box that was issue a couple+ years ago).  I've really liked this clutch of older (DG/Archiv) cantatas recordings, but I wonder if that's all I need from Gardiner....especially if I have a chance to get an omnibus of the Suzuki recordings, many of which I've spent a lot of time with and really like, smoothness and all.  On the other hand, one really probably cannot have too many cantatas recordings.  And I await the chance to own Karl Richter's, and that's one I must have if I can get it. 
It's rather nice for this to be one of the pressing problems in my life.  I should remember this moment next time things get bad.

My searches showed a bit of discussion on the Gardiner series from a couple years ago; maybe there are some fresh opinions, even in light of releases, acquistions, and listening (not just to Gardiner) done even since then?

This should be no surprise to anyone, but it does seem that Bis is determined to issue a compendium of the Suzuki; per an email from Bis CEO Robert von Bahr:
Cantatas are a harsh addiction.  The phonograph needle and the damage done.

First of, I feel your pain. Or joy, as it were.
Secondly: I looooooove the Gardiner Pilgrimige Cantata issues... I love how they look, I love how they feel, I love the idea of the project, and the recordings, to boot, are very decent, and a few are even very good.

But I think you might get the drift... I think that, for all the right reasons, the Gardiner set of cantatas is rather overrated. If the Suzuki-curve didn't point so steeply up, I might have placed Gardiner's genial cycle above Suzuki... but the latter has been delivering hot tamales for the last 20 or so issues and is, to my ears at least, the more attractive cycle now.

And as you say, there is the lovable, anachronistic, super-musical Karl Richter 1/3 cycle to think of... and the fierce, painfully beautiful 1-year cycle of Kuijken's. And, still on average the most satisfying for me (if admittedly without the same high highlights that others, including Gardiner throw into the mix): Koopman.

Still, I would covet (if I didn't already have most of it in these delicious individual releases; how is the set going to be relieased? Hopefully just a box of those, rather than sleeves and catch-all-booklet) Gardiner over Rilling, Leonhardt/Harnoncourt, and Leusink, pleasure I can attain from all of those, though.