J.S. Bach - Cantatas, Vol.48 (BWV 34, 117, 98, 120)

BBC Music Magazine: Choice of the Month July 2011.

Volume 48 of Masaaki Suzuki’s and Bach Collegium Japan’s traversal of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas opens with Cantata 43, O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe – a jubilant work intended for Whit Sunday 1727, but with its origins in an earlier, secular wedding cantata. Its scoring, with three trumpets and timpani, returns in the closing work, Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille (BWV 120) composed for a festive church service marking the annual town council election in Leipzig. But the programme also also offers moments of introspection and quiet beauty, such as the celebrated alto aria Ich will dich all mein Leben lang from Cantata 117, here performed by the counter-tenor Robin Blaze, well-known to the followers of this series. Cantata 98 contains another heartfelt aria: Hört, ihr Augen, auf zu weinen, sung by the soprano Hana Blažíková, whose performances on recent releases have impressed many reviewers.