Bach through Christmas...

[verismissimo]

It being Advent Sunday, I've decided to listen around the appointed days to the Bach cantatas written for the days through to Epiphany:

Advent Sunday: 36, 61, 62
2nd Sunday in Advent (lost)
3rd Sunday in Advent (lost)
4th Sunday in Advent: 132
Christmas Day: 63, 91, 110, 191, 248i (Christmas Oratorio)
2nd day of Christmas: 40, 57, 121, 248ii
3rd day of Christmas: 64, 133, 151, 248iii
Sunday after Christmas: 28, 122, 152
New Year: 16, 41, 143, 171, 190, 248iv
Sunday after New Year: 58, 153, 248v
Epiphany: 65, 123, 248vi

Helped by the fact that we'll be at home (except for a few days in Paris ahead of New Year). Such great music!

Any particular favourites?

[Roehre]

very comprehensive indeed

add to Christmas Day 197a and the list is complete

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Brilliant idea, veris - once I've completed my Bach Cantata exodus, I intend reburning them from BWV ordering to chronological. Christmas has been celebrated with the "Christmas Oratorio" for the past five years, courtesy messrs Christophers and Suzuki - this year I have the JEG recording for the first time.

[verismissimo]

very comprehensive indeed

add to Christmas Day 197a and the list is complete

Ah yes, Roehre, but I don't have a recording of it!

[MickyD]

Has anyone heard the new Hyperion Stephen Layton/OAE Christmas Oratorio yet? I presume it will get a hearing on CD Review before the festive season.

[Roehre]

Ah yes, Roehre, but I don't have a recording of it!

It's the Wedding Cantata BWV 197 with an amended text and different recitatives. The choruses, arias and the chorales are essentially the same music.

[Karafan]

I am developing a taste for the Bach cantatas and wondered if you tend to listen with the translations to hand or just listen to them as 'pure music' (nothing pejorative intended by this)?

Just how important do others feel the text is, to which Bach set his glorious music? My JEG set has no hard copy of text/translations just a CD ROM.

I can't really see me peering at a CD-ROM and shudder a bit at the cost of the Dürr paperback.....though it may well be a case of 'in for a penny'.....

The JEG set is outstandingly well sung, played and recorded from my initial samplings and the cover art wonderful.

K

[Thropplenoggin]

I am developing a taste for the Bach cantatas and wondered if you tend to listen with the translations to hand or just listen to them as 'pure music' (nothing pejorative intended by this)?

K

For now I listen to them as 'pure music', but then I took the same approach to Wagner initially. Streaming the Preludes online, I let the recording run on, and found myself enjoying the voices as an instrument. My interest piqued by subsequent listenings, I went off to find out what was being sung.

I only have one Suzuki disc of cantatas, but have my eye on two more discs in Presto's 25% sale:

BWV 131, 71, and the sublime 106 (have duetting recorders ever sounded more wonderful?): http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/BIS/BISCD781

BWV 40, 60, 70, 90: http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/BIS/BISCD1111

I'll be getting them as FLAC downloads.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I can't really see me peering at a CD-ROM and shudder a bit at the cost of the Dürr paperback.....though it may well be a case of 'in for a penny'.....

You might find this a useful site, K:

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/index.htm

... click on "Cantatas", find the BWV number and you can access a variety of English translations, and access some interesting discussions of the works themselves.

[Karafan]

Thanks Throppers and Ferney. The site does look interesting and I shall explore that.

Anyone else with an opinion as to whether I should shell out for Alfred Dürr's rather comprehensive book?

[Roehre]

Though I most of the time enjoy the Bach-cantatas as "absolute" music, well understanding them is out-of-the-question without (especially) the theological/ecclesiastical connotations/contents of these works. The texts therefore are indispensable.

FHG's link is therefore essential if you are not going for the Dürr (which in their English guise is approximately 10 times as expensive as in their original German one ).

[verismissimo]

BWV 110 Unser Mund sei voll Lachens. For Christmas Day.

Such joy!

[BBMmk2]

I am going to have to listen to these Cantatas all in a very short space of time! Today may be a good time to do this?

[Serial_Apologist]

Bach through Rubbra

Advent Cantata: Natum Maria Virgine.

[verismissimo]

Advent Cantata: Natum Maria Virgine.

Love to have that, Serial, but the Chandos recording is just so expensive!