Sunday 7 December 2008

It is not often I sit down and listen to three different recordings of the same work. This weekend, however, I did just that to Bach's cantata BWV 21: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis. It was Sigiswald Kuijken versus Philippe Herreweghe versus Masaaki Suzuki. The winner was: Sigiswald Kuijken, by quite a margin with a 20 year old recording with La Petite Bande and the Nederlands Kamerkoor. Kuijken's soprano (Greta de Reyghere) was as good as Herreweghe's (Barbara Schlick) and both were superior to Suzuki's (Monika Frimmer). Kuijken had Christoph Prégardien as his ever-admirable tenor. But what gave Kuijken his big advantage was the supreme clarity of his orchestral and choral textures. Bach's textures are often dense and complex (a source of much criticism during his lifetime), and in this cantata the bass line often has a key role in heightening the harmonic tension. With Kuijken, you hear all the parts, and his choir during the fugal passages thins down to just one or two per part. In additon, with Kuijken's direction you sense a deep love of this marvellous cantata by all concerned.

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