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Bach: Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Epiphany
16 & 17 January 2000
Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich, London
"...sung with almost unbearable passion and commitment to the text by Gerald Finley" The Independent
Joanne Lunn (soprano)
Richard Wyn Roberts (alto)
Julian Podger (tenor)
Gerald Finley (bass)
The Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner
This was recorded as Volume 19 of John Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantatas series of CDs. Click photo below for details
What the critics say
Andrew Stewart, the Independent, 20 January 2000
http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article292829.ece
Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage returned to home ground to mark the second Sunday after Epiphany, drawing a capacity audience in Greenwich. Epiphany in Bach's Lutheran church was less a time for great rejoicing than one for recalling the season's hardships and reminding flocks to keep the faith. The composer's three cantatas for the second Sunday deal with themes of doubt and reassurance, jointly explored in the tortured emotions of the bass aria "Ächzen und erbärmlich Weinen" ("Groaning and painful weeping") from Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen BWV 13.
The latter was sung with almost unbearable passion and commitment to the text by Gerald Finley. Natural expression of words was a compelling feature of this concert, with Julian Podger's tenor recitatives suggesting he has the resources to become an outstanding interpreter of Bach's Evangelist roles.
The programme also included the motet Jesu, meine Freude. Although the choir contains a healthy share of former Oxbridge choristers, its sensibilities in many respects owe as much to the opera house as to the collegiate chapel. The consolations of hearing a full-blooded and musical group of singers at work proved more than sufficient to compensate for occasional blemishes in pro- nunciation and balance.
There were fine things, too, in the cantatas, introduced in Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange BWV 155 by Philip Turbett's faultless circumnavigation of the sprightly bassoon part in the aria for alto and teno, and crowned by Joanne Lunn's joyful expression of the soprano aria "Wirf, mein Herze, wirf dich noch, in des Hächsten Liebesarme". Lunn's technical resources were certainly attractive, yet it was the singer's commitment to words and their message that here left the deepest impression.
Peter Grahame Woolf for musicweb.com
http://www.musicweb-international.com/sandh/2000/jan00/bachcantata.htm
[Performance on 16 January 2000.]
This is an extraordinary venture and a worthy celebration of J S Bach in the 250th anniversary year of his death at 65 in 1750. During 2000 all 198 cantatas are to be performed on the liturgically appropriate days throughout Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic States & USA. Deutsche Grammophon will release 12 CDs from the Pilgrimage.
This Greenwich concert was the first of the British leg of the tour. We heard the Cantatas BWV 3, 13 and 155 together with the Motet Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227. The Chapel of the former Naval College (Trinity College of Music is moving in soon) is a sumptuous setting with excellent acoustics.
There was a fine period orchestra led by Maya Homburger, with notable contributions from recorders, bassoon and oboes d'amore and da caccia. The solo singers were all admirable, Joanne Lunn (soprano), Julian Podger (tenor), Richard Wyn Roberts (alto) and Gerald Finley (bass). The soloists also joined the choir, as would have been customary in Bach's time. The Monteverdi Choir came into its own especially in the large-scale five-part motet, a symmetrical structure in 11 sections, which was given with continuo support.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner's way with Bach gently emphasises the dance basis of so many of the movements, even when the texts are sombre, as for this Sunday in mid-January. Even the tenor aria in Meine Seufzer, meine Traenen (described as desolate in mood from start to finish) had a lilt in its exquisite accompaniment for two recorders, oboe da caccia and continuo, but the bass aria "groaning and piteous weeping" (although sung in German, the words were provided in English only) did not belie its reputation as "the most grief-laden aria Bach ever wrote".
A memorable, life enhancing experience, which whets the appetite for future concerts in this marathon series, scheduled to end in New York on 31 December. Most of the concerts will take place in beautiful churches, some of them with important historical connections with J S Bach, and there will be an additional 'satellite' concert in the Proms on 15 July.