Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) - Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140; Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 (1992) Cover Front Album Composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Conductor John Eliot Gardiner Orchestra / Ensemble I English Baroque Soloists Length 52:49 Format CD Genre Vocal; Cantata Chorus I The Monteverdi Choir Index 58 Out of Print Yes Musicians Soloist Holton; Chance; Johnson; Varcoe; Bury; East; Robson; Earle; Steele-Perkins Credits Producer Karl-August Naegler Label Archiv Track List 01 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140: Chorale "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" 06:17 02 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140: Recitative "Er Kommt, er kommt, der Brautgam kommt!" 00:51 03 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140: Aria - Duet "Wenn kommst du, mein Heil?" 05:32 04 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140: Chorale "Zion hort die Wachter singen" 03:49 05 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140: Recitative "So geh herein zu mir" 01:25 06 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140: Aria - Duet "Mein Freund ist mein" 05:05 07 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140: Chorale "Gloria sei dir gesungen" 01:45 08 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Chorus "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" 04:00 09 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Recitative "Gebenedeiter Mund!" 01:44 10 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Aria "Schame dich, o Seele, nicht" 03:14 11 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Recitative "Verstockung kann Gewaltige verblenden" 01:34 12 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Aria "Bereite dir, Jesu, noch itzo die Bahn" 04:29 13 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Chorale "Wohl mir, dass ich Jesum habe" 02:28 14 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Aria "Hilf, Jesu, hilf, dass ich auch dich bekenne" 03:16 15 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Recitative "Der hochsten Allmacht Wunderhand" 02:16 16 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Aria "Ich will von Jesu Wunder singen" 02:33 17 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Chorale "Jesus bleibet meine Freude" 02:31 Personal Purchase Date 1/1/1998 Value $16.00 Store BMG Condition 100% Nationality German Premiere Leipzig, 1723 Language German Period Baroque Details Studio St. Andrew's Church, Fontmell Magna, Shaftsbury, Dorset Catalog Number 431 809-2 Live No Recording Date 3/1/1990 Spars DDD Reissue No Sound Stereo Notes Ruth Holton: Soprano Michael Chance: Counter-tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson: Tenor Stephen Varcoe: Bass Alison Bury: Violin and violino piccolo (Jacobus Stainer, 1659) Angela East: Violincello Anthony Robson; Richard Earle: Oboe Chrispian Steele-Perkins: Trumpet Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 Cantata for the 27th Sunday after Trinity Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 Cantata for the Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Essay: Richard Campbell Gramophone review: This is the third disc in John Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantata series for Archiv. The works he has chosen contain what are probably the two best-known pieces in the entire canon, the chorales Zion hort die Wachter singen (Zion hears the watchmen sing) from No. 140, and Jesu bleibet meine Freude, popularly called Jesu, joy of man's desiring from No. 147. These masterly cantatas date from different periods in Bach's life. No. 147, in its earliest form, belongs to Bach's Weimar period; but for a Leipzig performance in 1723 he added recitatives, the famous chorale which concludes the first and second parts of the work, and perhaps the bass aria, too. No. 140 is a purely Leipzig piece dating from 1731 when it was sung on the rarely occurring Twenty Seventh Sunday after Trinity. I have had mixed reactions to Gardiner's previous two cantata discs in this interesting series and I feel somewhat ambivalent about this one, too. Readers will not need to be enlightened concerning performance standards for these are, as usual, commendably high. There is no shortage, either, of affecting gestures in Gardiner's direction which is both warmly communicative and plentifully endowed with insight to the music. No, my problem here lies more with the strength of the interpretations which strike me as lightweight. The opening chorus of No. 140, for example, is a very dramatic affair yet this aspect of Bach's art takes second place to refinement of articulation and gracefulness of phrase. I would not for a moment be without these sterling qualities but the imagery of this great movement is vivid and declamatory and Bach's intention was surely to arouse the passions of his audience. The opening chorus of No. 147 is another radiant piece, this one dominated by a glittering high trumpet. The soloist, Crispian SteelePerkins, plays it almost impeccably yet, once again, I felt the effect was decorative rather than assertive. The solo singing is by and large excellent. I very much enjoyed the unpretentious vocal quality of Ruth Holton though would like to have felt she had a little bit more in reserve. Michael Chance and Stephen Varcoe are both on characteristically strong form but my greatest pleasure derived from the eloquent declamation of recitatives by Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Choir and instrumentalists are as responsive to Gardiner's direction as we have come to expect of them but even so I am left with the feeling that the great sense of occasion generated by this music has only been realized in part. The Archiv documentation is up to its usual high standard.