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Bach - Motets

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Label
Catalogue numberBIS-1841 SACD
Release date2010-01-22
Discs1
Orig. sample rate44100Hz
Total time75:28

BBC Music Magazine Choral Award 2011:"The most heavenly singing in excellent performances"; Classics Today 10/10: "Just great"; Diapason d'or de l'Année 2010, best disc of choral music of the year 2010.



Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan have taken a short break from Bach's cantatas in order to record the same composer's Motets. Although few in number, these include such well-loved works as Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied and Jesu, meine Freude. Remarkable for their expressiveness and beauty as well as for Bach's virtuoso choral writing, most of the motets leave it open to the interpreters to perform them either a cappella or with instruments doubling the vocal parts. Masaaki Suzuki has opted for the latter alternative, and accompaniments range from a single organ, to strings and different combinations of strings and wind instruments. But nevertheless it is the singers of the Bach Collegium Japan that stand in the limelight here - and as followers of the Cantata series will already know, it is a marvellous choir. With regard to their recording of Bach's B minor Mass, the reviewer in Diapason called them 'a choir to dream of', while his colleague in Fono Forum, when writing about the Easter and Ascension Oratorios, described them as '16 singers, who sing with such clarity and flexibility that choral fullness of sound, soloistic virtuosity and transparency seem to merge, and this to a degree that one does not find in any European ensemble.' In view of the fact that several of the works are composed for double choir, the usual 16-member choir from the cantata recordings have been slightly expanded and here numbers 18 singers, of which some also appears as soloists. Included on the disc are the six motets BWV 225-231, as well as BWV 118 O Jesu Christ, mein's Lebens Licht and BWV Anh. 159 Ich lasse dich nicht.

The recording of the motets took place in Bach Collegium Japan's usual venue, the Kobe Shoin Chapel, and during it a short film was made. In this, Masaaki Suzuki talks about the special place the motets hold for him. Several of them were composed for funerals, and he finds in them music with a greater ability to console than human words, but also with 'a creative power for us to survive in this world.' There is not only grief in the motets - to Masaaki Suzuki's mind there is also the sound of angelic hosts: 'I think the angels' choir [in the Gospel of St Luke] might have been a double choir - as in Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied!'
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
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    • FLAC 24-bit Surround 5.0
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  • CD QUALITY | MP3
    File formats included in CD QUALITY | MP3
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$ 15.44
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
  Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV225 11:53
01 [Chorus]. Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied 04:28 $ 0.94 USD
02 [Choral/Aria]. Wie sich ein Vater erbarmet 04:01 $ 0.84 USD
03 [Chorus]. Lobet den Herrn in seinen Taten 03:24 $ 0.71 USD
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
  Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV229 08:15
04 [Chorus]. Komm, Jesu, komm 06:58 $ 1.46 USD
05 [Aria]. Drum schließ ich mich in deine Hände 01:17 $ 0.27 USD
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
  Jesu, meine Freude, BWV227 19:47
06 Choral Vers 1. Jesu, meine Freude 01:07 $ 0.23 USD
07 [Chorus]. Es ist nun nichts Verdammliches an denen 02:29 $ 0.52 USD
08 Choral Vers 2. Unter deinen Schirmen 01:02 $ 0.22 USD
09 [Trio]. Denn das Gesetz des Geistes 00:56 $ 0.20 USD
10 Choral Vers 3. Trotz dem alten Drachen 02:09 $ 0.45 USD
11 [Fuge]. Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich 03:17 $ 0.69 USD
12 Choral Vers 4. Weg mit allen Schätzen! 00:57 $ 0.20 USD
13 Andante [Trio]. So aber Christus in euch ist 01:49 $ 0.38 USD
14 Choral Vers 5. Gute Nacht, o Wesen 03:37 $ 0.76 USD
15 [Chorus]. So nun der Geist 01:17 $ 0.27 USD
16 Choral Vers 6. Weicht, ihr Trauergeister 01:07 $ 0.23 USD
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
17 Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV230 05:55 $ 1.24 USD
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
18 Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir, BWV228 07:18 $ 1.53 USD
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
19 Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, BWVAnh.159 04:01 $ 0.84 USD
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
  Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV226 07:03
20 [Chorus]. Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf 03:30 $ 0.74 USD
21 [Alla breve]. Der aber die Herzen forschet 02:11 $ 0.46 USD
22 [Choral]. Du heilige Brunst, süßer Trost 01:22 $ 0.29 USD
 
 
  Composer: Bach, Johann Sebastian
23 O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV118 (zweite Fassung) 09:19 $ 1.96 USD
 
  Album total 75:28
Choir & orchestraBach Collegium Japan
ComposerBach, Johann Sebastian
ConductorSuzuki, Masaaki
BassWörner, Dominik
Counter-tenorGuillon, Damien
TenorMizukoshi, Satoshi
SopranoNonoshita, Yukari

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