The Sunday Times

SDG141 Bach Cantatas Volume 3 (3 Mar 2008)

John Eliot Gardiner’s fast-emerging cycle of Bach cantatas, recorded live on his Bach Pilgrimage in 2000, is proving one of the most compelling extended recording projects of the age. Nothing is just ordinary. The opening chorus of Ich ruf zu dir, BWV 177, for instance, magically combines obbligatos for violin and two oboes, three poignantly interweaving lower parts and a dignified supplicatory chorale. Then there’s the extraordinarily rich Gott ist mein König, BWV 71, with a penultimate chorus that seductively combines recorders and oboes, and the movingly penitential Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, BWV 131, a stunningly adventurous early cantata. Magdalena Kozena, Nathalie Stutzmann et al offer fine singing.
Stephen Pettit

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