J.S. Bach: Cantatas & Sacred Masterpieces

[B. Goren.]

Got a question to you, JS Bach fans: Does anyone know this set and can comment on the performance of John Eliot Gardiner???

[gnhrtg]

I have the box and I've also had some of the contents in their original release. Overall, definitely worth your time & money in this packaging. Please let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to know about it.

[B. Goren.]

Thanks Gokhan.

[Late]

I thought there was another thread here on Bach's cantatas, but I couldn't find it. I'm looking for recommendations for a single disc (or, tops, 2-disc set) of Bach's cantatas. For myself, and also to be able to gift. I enjoy both HIP and more modern interpretations. Really just looking for listenability/enjoyability as opposed to "musically significant" (if that makes sense) or "historically accurate."

Thanks! 

e.g. — should I just go for this one?

[Guy Berger]

On 7/11/2010 at 1:21 AM, gnhrtg said:

I have the box and I've also had some of the contents in their original release. Overall, definitely worth your time & money in this packaging. Please let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to know about it.

Is the recording of the mass in b minor in this box the same one that's available separately?

[StarThrower]

Sinfonia Tragica

Concerto for Piano and Viola

[MomsMobley]

10 hours ago, Late said:

I thought there was another thread here on Bach's cantatas, but I couldn't find it. I'm looking for recommendations for a single disc (or, tops, 2-disc set) of Bach's cantatas. For myself, and also to be able to gift. I enjoy both HIP and more modern interpretations. Really just looking for listenability/enjoyability as opposed to "musically significant" (if that makes sense) or "historically accurate."

Thanks! 

e.g. — should I just go for this one?

Late-- my fortune or mis-, with the Rifkin you've happened upon a set whose primary, if not only, virtues are 1) its musical significance and 2) its (relative) historical accuracy. Rifkin not just important figure in Joplin performance but one-to-a-part Bach also and though I am admirer, these are somewhat particular side and not, perhaps, the 'best' of their kind. That said, I'd recommend them strongly over the vast majority of their ponderous, ersatz romantic predecessors, including early those conducted by well-intentioned but ponderous early-ish HIP-ster Karl Richter.

Instead, I'd go for a Phillip Herreweghe cond. set on Virgin; his recodings there been collected / anthologized various ways and though I have issues with one of his countertenors (Charles Brett), overall his accomplishment is high. Any single Herreweghe Bach disc on Harmonia Mundi will also be wortwhile The Suzuki cycle on BIS is estimable but currently pricey in single volumes, all the latter ones hybrid SACD. Though sometimes creaky / raw, the Harnoncourt conducted cantatas in the Harnoncourt / Leonhardt cycle are always interesting, often enough excellent.

For J.S. secular cantatas, Rene Jacobs is tough to beat.

Better to know a few works very well than get caught up in the budget box / false 'bargain' tombstone bullshit (though someday you might indeed want all the Bach cantatas.)

 

 

[Late]

16 hours ago, MomsMobley said:

Better to know a few works very well than get caught up in the budget box ...

My sentiment exactly. In the last couple of years, I've tended to avoid box sets (with a few exceptions) and actually have enhanced my listening experience as a result.

I'll look for some Herreweghe.

[psu_13]

I like the Rilling set, and tend to lean away from HIP type recordings ... but Gardiner has a more recent series of live recordings recorded over a year in various locales that is pretty compelling.

If you really want to explore this material it's a great excuse to sign up for Spotify or Apple Music and stream a bunch of it to see what you like. Most of the major sets are in those services, including the entire Rilling Complete Bach boxed set.