Topic: Bach Cantatas (Poll)

[DavidW]

I was wondering what you would think since bwv 82 is my favorite cantata.

[Jo498]

In Lutheran practice the language of old chorals is slightly amended/adopted at some intervals because 250-500 years are not a short time in the development of language (that only began becoming standardized at Luther's time, mainly through his bible translation and other writings). I haven't checked but I think that in the 50s or 60s they might often have slightly modernized Bach texts as well, thus "genug" (which is modern standard, "genung" is archaic or dialectal).

[71 dB]

BWV 86, 87, 88 & 89

Out of these four cantatas I prefer BWV 87 and declare as "essential."

--------------------

The apartment building where my rental apartment is will move to geothermal energy. On week 20 they will start drilling the heating wells and that will cause a lot of noise. They will work Monday to Friday from 7 am to 10 pm and on Saturdays from 9 am to 6 pm. The drilling of the wells will take 3-4 weeks. This means that it may be challenging to listen to music* and my mental energy will go to retain my sanity, because as someone with aspergers I am sensitive to noise. After the wells are drilled, there will be further construction of the new geothermal energy system and the whole thing will last for 5 months, but I suppose the drilling phase will be the worst. All of this is likely to slow down my progress with the cantatas.

 

* Well, maybe very loud electronic music such as The Prodigy will mask the drilling noises, but dynamic classical music is problematic.

[71 dB]

BWV 90, 91, 92 & 93

None of these felt essential. Moving on... 

[DavidW]

I was listening to some Bach cantatas this morning.  I've been taking the Gardiner box but only picking out the top two tiers on classical.net's rankings.  This landed me on bwv 81, which for the life of me I couldn't recall.  But I really loved it!  I thought that the work was consistently engaging and especially loved what the violins were doing.  I think I'll put that cantata on repeat.

[71 dB]

BWV 94, 95, 96 & 97

BWV 94 isn't much to my liking, but BWV 95-97 are, especially the last one! 

[71 dB]

BWV 98, 99, 100 & 101

These cantatas felt pretty uninteresting, except for the opening chorus of BWV 101, which sounds really weird and "out of tune."

[71 dB]

BWV 102 & 103

Only two cantatas today because of time issues. BWV 102 a good cantata. I love the use of Flauto piccolo in BWV 103!

Now to the sauna! 

[71 dB]

BWV 104, 105, 106 & 107

Listened to no 104 a couple of times this week. A superb work, containing one of his most beautiful arias (for bass).

The bass aria of BWV 104 is indeed beautiful. I also enjoy BWV 106 a lot. Great early cantata! 

[71 dB]

BWV 108, 109, 110 & 111

This time around BWV 109 was by far the most impressive cantata and definitely "essential." 

[71 dB]

BWV 112, 113, 114 & 115

BWV 115 wins this contest. Very beautiful serene cantata!

Next week starts the drilling of geothermal wells causing lots of noise making listening to music challenging. I may even take a break in listening to these cantatas.

These drillings of wells is the last thing I want in the middle of all the Ukraine/Russia/NATO hassle, but it is what it is. Green energy, climate change and all that jazz. Life is constant struggle these days... 

[71 dB]

BWV 116, 117, 119 & 120

None of these felt "essential."

No drilling on Monday so I was able to listen to four more cantatas.

[71 dB]

BWV 120a, 121 & 122

No drilling on Tuesday either... ...BWV 120a is somehow massive.

I borrowed Rilling doing BWV 29, 50 and 140 so I can compare to Suzuki.

[71 dB]

BWV 123, 124 & 125

Still no drilling on Wednesday... ...they can't start before the have finished the previous job.

These tree cantatas are nicely on the same dics in order so listening to them was convinient. I didn't continue to BWV 126, because it is on the same disc with BWV 127.

BWV 125 is the best of these. I really like the alto aria.