Bach's Easter Oratorio

[ardcarp]

This is more like an extended cantata.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tw5l

These concert notes seem authoritative, if anyone feels like doing some homework!

https://bach.org/education/bwv-249/

I apologise for all the erroneous dates I've put in my headings for this. Maybe it will happen on 4th April?

[Pulcinella]

Give me this any day over that dreadful dirge "Jesus Christ is risen today"!

Sadly, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem (yes, I did a double take too, but it's Bethlehem PA) possibly should have done their homework (or proofreading) a bit better:

This is the third work for which Bach employed the term “Oratorioum”, the other two being the Christmas Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio.

I stand to be corrected, but “Oratorioum”?

Lower down, we get:

Music of the music of the Easter Oratorio originated in 1725 in Bach’s cantata Entflieht, Verschwindet, entweich ihr Sorgen, which was written for the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfled. It was transformed a mere month later – using newly composed recitatives and new text (probably by Picander) – into an Easter cantata.

I suspect that the first word in the first sentence should be "Much'.

Nevertheless, it looks like an interesting essay, so thanks for the advance notice, and the link to the article.

The only recording I have is probably dreadfully unfashionable these days, but I like it anyway:
Elly Ameling/Helen Watts/Werner Krenn/Tom Krause
Wiener Akademie-Chor
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
Karl Münchinger

[MickyD]

I've always been very fond of the jubilant sounding Herreweghe version on Harmonia Mundi.

[CallMePaul]

[QUOTE=Pulcinella;840507]Give me this any day over that dreadful dirge "Jesus Christ is risen today"!/QUOTE]

I find that this hymn is always played too slowly. It should sound like the most joyful hym n in the Christian hymnals, but the funereal pace some choirs and organists take it makes it seem quite the opposite!

[ardcarp]

Elly Ameling/Helen Watts/Werner Krenn/Tom Krause

No need to apologise for liking the above. All fine soloists, especially Elly Ameling!

[gurnemanz]

I have a CD by Gustav Leonhardt with Orch and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment. I hadn't listened for a while and have just done so with great pleasure. Its unusual form makes it a much more intimate experience than its larger scale Christmas counterpart. Sleeve notes include a very lucid exposition of the work's provenance by Nicholas Anderson. (Notes in other languages are original pieces rather than translations.)

I also have a disc I like very much on which Maddy Prior and friends deliver lively gallery versions of various hymns including The Lord is Risen

[Rolmill]

[QUOTE=CallMePaul;840520]

Give me this any day over that dreadful dirge "Jesus Christ is risen today"!/QUOTE]

I find that this hymn is always played too slowly. It should sound like the most joyful hymn in the Christian hymnals, but the funereal pace some choirs and organists take it makes it seem quite the opposite!

Agreed - I've just this afternoon recorded my contributions to our church choir's Easter morning service, against a pre-recorded organ accompaniment, which includes the slowest rendition of "Jesus Christ is risen today" I've ever sung! More a pain to be endured than a hymn of praise, unfortunately.

Back on topic, the Easter Oratorio is part of my standard playlist over the Easter period - like MickyD I usually go for the Herreweghe HM recording - so I will try to catch this programme to learn more about it.

[MickyD]

I have a CD by Gustav Leonhardt with Orch and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment. I hadn't listened for a while and have just done so with great pleasure. Its unusual form makes it a much more intimate experience than its larger scale Christmas counterpart. Sleeve notes include a very lucid exposition of the work's provenance by Nicholas Anderson. (Notes in other languages are original pieces rather than translations.)

I also have a disc I like very much on which Maddy Prior and friends deliver lively gallery versions of various hymns including The Lord is Risen

I'd like to hear that one, too. Not surprised by the good notes from Nicholas Anderson - I was good friends with him when I lived in his neck of the woods, both being ardent Ramellians! I lost touch with him when I moved to France, which is a shame, but I have always really appreciated his style of writing (and broadcasting when he was on Record Review many years ago).

[Constantbee]

I've always been very fond of the jubilant sounding Herreweghe version on Harmonia Mundi.

Thanks for the recommendation It looks as though a Bach BWV249 Herreweghe Easter Oratorio is available on Youtube. The YT upload date is 17 March 2018 and the recording is dated 1994. As far as I can tell the artists appear to be the same as those on the Harmonia Mundi recording release dated 28 March 1995 : Barbara Schlick, Kai Wessel, Piet Kooy, Collegium Vocale Gent. Probably the same one, then. Always satisfying to get a taster of a recommended recording if you don’t yet have a streaming service and can’t get your hands on a CD, imho.

[ardcarp]

I watched The Netherlands Bach Society performance of it on Youtube tonight. Jos van Veldhoven is my Bach hero at the moment. He doesn't push music where it doesn't want to go, and he seems positively to foster communication between his players and singers rather than imposing his will at every moment. Young English tenor Tom Hobbs is on this (and many other) NBS offerings. Superb. And a cracking soprano soloist too.

[MickyD]

Thanks for the recommendation It looks as though a Bach BWV249 Herreweghe Easter Oratorio is available on Youtube. The YT upload date is 17 March 2018 and the recording is dated 1994. As far as I can tell the artists appear to be the same as those on the Harmonia Mundi recording release dated 28 March 1995 : Barbara Schlick, Kai Wessel, Piet Kooy, Collegium Vocale Gent. Probably the same one, then. Always satisfying to get a taster of a recommended recording if you don’t yet have a streaming service and can’t get your hands on a CD, imho.

That's the one! Glad you found it. If you can find the CD, you also get cantata 66. I love the performance and the recorded sound. Herreweghe always seems to find the right tempo in Bach, for me at least.

[ardcarp]

I'm afraid I only had time to dip in and out of EMS today, but from what I heard, it was a good résumé of the piece...perhaps not so well-known.
If any other Forumista has comments, it would be good to hear them. (I'll try and hear the whole programme tomorrow.)

I still very much like the Netherlands Bach Society performance of the work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62fawgUUpg8

It will be interesting to compare it with examples from EMS.

[Keraulophone]

The Netherlands Bach Society performance ... on Youtube ... Jos van Veldhoven is my Bach hero at the moment. He doesn't push music where it doesn't want to go, and he seems positively to foster communication between his players and singers rather than imposing his will at every moment.

I heartily agree re JvV. What a wonderful gift All of Bach is to the world - I haven’t heard a single disagreeable performance anywhere, and the background information provided, including the thoughts of performers, is very conveniently presented.

[ardcarp]

[ardcarp]

Sorry, I'm a bit obsessed with Bach's Easter Oratorio at the moment. The tenor aria Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer, in Hannah's excerpt from the Baroque Orchestra of Stuttgart:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000tw5l

is about 40 mins 15 from the start (after some bits of recit). Hannah describes this as 'perhaps the best lullaby Bach ever wrote'.

Compare the orchestral playing of this with Netherlands Bach Society's version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62fawgUUpg8

...about 23 mins 37 sec from start.

Both tenors are excellent (I'm trying to be unbiased because I know the second one well) but the playing of the Netherlands band seems far, far better. The Stuttgart lot seem strangely dislocated, and the texture is less coherent.