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I've
been looking forward so much to this doublebill of popular secular
cantatas by Bach. Even with the market already full with issues
of similar works one could reasonably ask what another new recording
could conceivably contribute to the field. My esteemed editor tells
me that this is a phenomenon artistic circles called "encyclopaediaism";
in particular, this CD being Volume 99 in Hänssler's Edition
Bachakademie campaign to produce the complete works of Johann
Sebastian Bach on 172 CDs by June 2000.
Bach
On The Make
Bach
nonetheless also relied on income from a slightly more lugubrious
source: funerals. In a famous letter of October 28th, 1730
to his friend Georg Erdmann, he writes:
My
present post amounts to about seven hundred thaler
and when there are rather more funerals than usual, the fees
rise in proportion; but, when a healthy wind blows, they fall
accordingly. As, for example, last year when I lost fees that
would ordinarily come in from funerals to an amount of more
than one hundred thaler. In Thuringia, I could get
along better on four hundred thaler than here with
twice that many, because of the excessively high cost of living.
You
could say that Bach, the consummate businessman, knew where
the wind was blowing.
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Like
so much of Bach's music, nobody today really knows the origins of
the cantata O lovely day, O desired time ! ("Wedding Cantata"),
although it has been suggested that it might have been performed
in April 1742 at the wedding of Heinrich Freidrich Graff to Bach's
goddaughter, Anna Regina Bose (of the famed gold-and-silversmiths
family). The autograph score, however, seems to suggest that the
work was written before the autumn of 1741 and there is even scriptory
evidence to suggest that parts of the music were written as early
as 1727.
It
also comes as no surprise that, as cantor of the Thomasschule (as
he was then), Bach also wrote copious amounts of celebratory music
by commission for all occasions: not just weddings, but for New
Year's Day concerts, birthdays and name-days of nobility, receptions
for foreign potentiates, and even social events as council holidays
in the city of Leipzig.
The
Wedding Cantata is set as a quintet of diverse recitative-aria
pairs on the effects of music in the context of marriage, for soprano
and accompaniment. The most striking quality on this recording from
the opening piece, O lovely day, is the spaciousness and
crystal-clear intimacy of the sound. The acoustics of the Stadhalle
Sindelfingen, where this recording was made, are most conducive.
Sibylla Rubens (left) tackles the demanding soprano's role with
great conviction, but the grace and sweetness of her tone is ruined
by excessive sibilants and consonantal pops in her diction which
are too harshly captured and does not bear well for repeated listening.
The timbre of her rich voice is sheer and full, although there is
an uncharacteristic hint of shrillness on the high notes; there
could have been more eloquence and less strain on the vocal delivery.
The
exhortary recitative "Esteemed Sir, that thou may ever retain"
is delivered rather fiercely. The closing benison "Be blissful,
noble spouses" is more articulated and warmly lyrical than the
preceding numbers, but it comes too late. Overall, there could have
been greater shades of subtlety and a lightness of touch to make
this a more felicitious interpretation; I probably would have enjoyed
this recording more than I did.
The cantata "Be quiet, stop talking" ("Coffee Cantata")
was written for altogether a different social audience: bourgeois
coffee drinkers in Leipzig coffee-houses. Bach composed this comic
work with his amateur Collegium Musicum in mind, telling the story
of a fun-loving girl of Leipzig (soprano) and her addiction to coffee,
as well as her father's (bass) efforts to break her of her habit.
A third vocal role, the Narrator (tenor), was added purely as a
dramatic storytelling device.
Above/right:
Detail from "Coffee House, England". Anonymous, c.1705.
The
work begins with an extravagant, smile-inducing flourish of the
harpsichord and James Taylor's youthful-sounding tenor admonishing
the audience to "Be quiet, stop talking!", before continuing
with the exposition of the story. The harpsichord's gruff chords
at the passage "he's growling like a honey-bear" is apt as it is
humorous.
Thomas
Quasthoff's Schelendrian is a worried old man, frowning and bothered.
Well, one can readily imagine Bach himself in the same position,
having, as he did, several daughters. Don't one's children cause
one endless trials and tribulations is a passage with which
many parents will readily identify and Quasthoff evokes this sympathy
convincingly.
Christine Schäfer (right) in the role of Liesgen also delivers a
telling performance as the dilettante addicted to the pleasures
of coffee. There is a tangible bloom of pleasure as she sings of
Mm ! how sweet the coffee tastes, intertwining her ardent
desires with the airy tracery of aromatic fumes engagingly portrayed
by the flautist, Jean-Claude Gérard.
There
are also several humorous father-vs-daughter exchanges between Schlendrian
and Liesgen, with Schäfer at her most girlishly coy, although
Quasthoff doesn't sound quite as vexed as he ought to be - this,
we can safely assume, is baroque Teutonic nobility at its most reserved.
The
continuo accompaniment sounds heavy-handed at times, as might be
expected from a German band, but otherwise the instrumental playing
is deferential and diligent in support. Solo instrument ornaments,
such as the aforementioned flute, are empathic without being intrusive.
There
have been better performances of these two works, to be sure, but
these two accounts are full of conviction and the singers respond
well to the poetry of Bach's music. There are some rough edges here
and there, but on the whole, Rilling's interpretation has been well
executed, if unclimatic in the last. The documentation is scrupulously
informative and the packaging sumptious. The sound engineering is
first-class and, with the added advantage of being a new recording,
this CD could give the more prestigious versions on the market a
run for their money.
BENJAMIN
CHEE's favourite secular cantata is still Der Ausverkauf
wert die Aufwartung.
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24.1.2000 © Benjamin Chee
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