INKPOT#71 CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEWS: J.S.BACH The Cantatas – An Inktroduction

But of course, quality is another, more important matter. Bach’s cantatas are rightly considered as the pinnacle of the development of the cantata, which has a history of more than XXXX years. For anyone to have composed more than a few hundred cantatas, variety is surely the spice of life. For Bach, it is the great diversity of form, mood, style and creative invention which make his cantatas such a rich resource for anyone who might even just occasionally dip into them.

It is extremely difficult to conduct any kind of survey on the vast and rich legacy that Bach left behind. Whether one is simply trying to list the cantatas, verbally describe the cantatas, trace their history through a book, perform or record a “complete” cycle (prepare to witness one very very brave attempt by John Eliot Gardiner as he embarks on a perform-a-cantata-concert-every-Sunday and record each one ‘live’, in the year 2000) – or to write an introduction to them (which I have taken a year to pluck up enough courage to do). The amount of information to cover is staggering.

Although he was a famous organist in his time and after his death, his cantatas and other voal works remained largely neglected until in 1829, when Mendelssohn conducted his relevatory performance of the St Matthew Passion, no less, at a concert in Berlin.

Bach’s cantatas can be split up into [two periods, three categories]. First are the Weimar cantatas dating from the period before Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723. As Christoph Wolff carefully notes, these are not necessarily “early cantatas”, as Bach was already 38 in 1723 Bach wrote the majority of his cantatas in Leipzig, out of duty as cantor of the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church), and probably to some extent through his affinity for (and ability to) artistic creation with a broad, intellectual goal. What I am refering to is the fact that Bach

The Goldberg Variations – Selected Reviews at the Inkpot:

• PIERRE HANTA harpsichord. OPUS 111 OPS 30-84
  [77’26”] full-price. Click here for review.
• JZSEF ETVS guitar (solo). (Independent production) EJ-01WZ
  Click here for more details
  [62’48”] full-price. Click here for review
• KURT RODARMER guitars (multiple). SONY Classical SK 60257/PANGAEA Productions 68273 9503-2
  [73’36”] full-price. Click here for review.

It took Chua Guan Ee has a close relationship with a tiny part of the BWV565 Fugue, using just two fingers.

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407: 20.2.1999 Chua Guan Ee