14# Hammer Bite Bowling Balls

Bach / Gardiner (Cité de la Musique - 4 and 5 December 2010)

Weekend! I should only attend the concert on Sunday, and then the opportunity came to be there also on Saturday, so it was a festival.

To celebrate 10 years his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, Sir John Eliot Gardiner with his amazing runs Monteverdi Choir and excellent Français Baroque Soloists, and presents us, loyal to the philosophy of the pilgrimage, several cantatas for Advent, he completed a few concertos.
I see with this blog I've seen Gardiner 3 years ago, in a program Brahms. I had but a few memories. This time, I appreciate his art more direct, without a wand, but very different from Boulez, more flexible, say, often almost choreographic, and very expressive of the whole body, not just the finger and the eye!

BWV 61 - Cantata "Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland"

It is the introduction, initial magnificent chorus, rhythms and tiling. The orchestra is composed mostly of strings, with organ and harpsichord, and rare and momentary winds. The cello that accompanies the recitatives will be great from beginning to end, flexible support and comfort. The soloists come simply from the ranks of Monteverdi Choir. The most formidable is the bass Jonathan Sells, who in a recitative tenuous barely out of pizzicato imposes silence and attention rare public. Finally, for once, the final chorale is complex and all sparkling!

BWV 1060A - Concerto for violin and oboe

Very nice performance by Michael Niesemann, oboe, and Kati Debretzeni first violin soloist. These are the allegro movements which attract me the most, joyful and fluid exchange of the first, and fast-paced third, who knits severe bow! Then quietly joined the violinist's headquarters to ...

BWV 151 - Cantata "Süsser Trost, mein Jesus kommt"

If all the female voices do not m'emballent tonight, that of the soprano Zoe Brown is an exception, flourishing angelically in long notes in the air initial, decorated with a flute of exquisite and gentle volubility. 10 minutes of meltingly beautiful lullaby. Striking contrast when the bass rushes to replace theatrically jumped into action, both theatrically and musically.

BWV 70 - Cantata "Wachet! Beteta! Beteta! Wachet! This is a cantata

full of colors, which begins with a breathless chorus and adding a trumpet (Baroque, of course, an instrument of surprising simplicity of appearance). The other highlight is the recitative and air bass, alternating between bursts cataclysmic particularly furious at the orchestration (one speaks of the terrible day of the end of the world ...), and sovereign reassurances ("place where joy abounds ") we are really at the opera!

BWV 140 - Chorus "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"

And an encore. And what ca. The top of the evening. Like a bottle of wine at Cana. Gardiner brought on stage a few singers who accompanied the pilgrimage in 2000, and all begin with the choir sumptuousness, grandeur, balance lines, an elk, a generosity that is breathtaking and gives the meat hen. A rare moment, the feeling of being transported elsewhere, an air sublime sublimed by the interpretation.
"And now," concludes Gardiner héberlué in silence before the thunderous applause.

BWV 1052 - Concerto for Harpsichord

The Sunday concert is balanced between cantatas and concertos for harpsichord, directed from the harpsichord by Robert Levin, which deprives us of gesture Gardiner ... In this first concerto, I recognize the first movement, with organ sinfonia used in the introduction of BWV 146, more intimate at the harpsichord, but very striking, with these tunes and vigorous conquerors and the solo brilliant and incisive. The third movement is also taken into sinfonia, in BWV 188.

BWV 146 - Chorus "Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal"

is part pedagogy of the concert, which will be more talkative than before. Gardiner and Previn, both in French, explaining the times by Bach from one room to another, and illustrated by the choir that takes the second movement of the concerto before. The orchestration is actually more different than if they had chosen one of the sinfonia, which would have been more redundant. But I'm not convinced by this piece, which has difficulty finding its balance between the choir slow, subtle strings and an organ almost accidental, for air which does not affect me.

BWV 243a - Magnificat Lauds

The well known Magnificat BWV 243 is derived from a Magnificat BWV 243a Christmas, which included four short pieces specially written for Christmas, and that Bach was then removed to use this album to other opportunities. Odd choice than giving us these four pieces out of context. It's pretty, either, but a little short.

BWV 36 - Cantata "Schwingt freudig euch empor"

is a great cantata in two parts, which are here separated by the concerto for harpsichord 1053, and no recitatives. The opening chorus is a marvel of vitality, masking the acrobatic virtuosity in a very refreshing clarity (it is great, the bar was closed during the intermission ...). If it is an oboe d'amore, which accompanied the tenor in air, then it is proof that this instrument can play right, and then it's beautiful, one of these tunes while single, stepped between the pits of the organ and cello, the line held by the singer, and scrolls added by the oboe.
In the second part, I expected the bass aria, but the choir next by the tenors alone in long held notes above the boiling tumult of the orchestra, which takes me. The following lullaby, despite the violin Debretzeni makes me less effect than that of BWV 151.

BWV 1053 - Concerto for Harpsichord

This time, the air is slow central movement, a Sicilian, I prefer and that can be found in the cantata BWV 169.
As before, they will end the chorus of BWV 140, but this time without the additional singers, and the effect is less. You get used too quickly at prodigious.



Spotify: The Monteverdi Choir, The Français Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner - Bach Cantatas Volume 13 (BWV 61, 62, 36, 70, 132, 147) , Johann Sebastian Bach - Bach: Oboe Concertos , The Monteverdi Choir, The Français Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner - Bach Cantatas Vol. 15 (BWV 64, 151, 57, 133) , Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Bach: Cantatas BWV 29, 61 & 140 , The Academy of Ancient Music & Christopher Hogwood - Bach: Harpsichord Concertos, Triple Concerto , Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart - The Complete Bach Edition Vol. 140 - Sacred Vocal Works - Magnificat in E-Flat Major, Etc.