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The Complete Bach Cantatas<br />
What started to some consternation<br />
in 1995 – ‘Why record Bach’s cantatas<br />
with a Japanese group?’ – has by now<br />
become one of the most well-established<br />
large-scale recording projects<br />
in progress. After 99 cantatas, released<br />
on 28 discs, the verdict is unanimous:<br />
‘Suzuki projects the unity of each<br />
work with carefully sculpted opening<br />
choruses, well-leavened recitatives<br />
and urgent, radiant orchestral playing<br />
[…] a recording series, reaching near<br />
its mid-point, of outstanding consistency.’<br />
(Gramophone, UK)<br />
‘Masaaki Suzuki knows to an admirable<br />
degree how to create a full<br />
sound, in which every single part remains<br />
audible […] If he continues like<br />
this, one will always be able to look<br />
forward to a new disc of Bach cantatas.’<br />
(klassik.com, Germany)<br />
‘Once again Suzuki and his band<br />
prove their understanding of Bach’s music,<br />
of its rhetoric and meaning, without<br />
ever disregarding its melodic pleasures.’<br />
(Le Monde de la Musique, France)<br />
Having reached the end of 1724 in<br />
this chronological survey of the cantatas,<br />
the main change is the format<br />
of the discs themselves. From volume<br />
28 onwards, the series will be released<br />
as hybrid SACDs, enabling those who<br />
possess the suitable equipment to enjoy<br />
the multi-channel recordings in<br />
surround sound – a feature which<br />
adds to the dramatic aspect never far<br />
away in these miniature ‘church operas’.<br />
(Being hybrid discs, they are also<br />
playable – in stereo – on traditional<br />
CD players.)<br />
While continuing the cantata series<br />
unabated, the Bach Collegium<br />
Japan also finds the time to record<br />
other works by Bach (the secular ‘Coffee<br />
Cantata’, featuring soprano Carolyn<br />
Sampson, has already been released,<br />
and the Orchestral Suites are<br />
soon to come), and Masaaki Suzuki<br />
continues his survey of the works for<br />
harpsichord.<br />
192 www.bis.se<br />
‘Throughout this ongoing series I have come to consider the<br />
magnificent direction of Masaaki Suzuki to be one of the<br />
greatest recording achievements of my lifetime.’<br />
MusicWeb International<br />
Cantatas Volume 26 – <strong>BIS</strong>-CD-1401 (p. 20)<br />
Masaaki Suzuki<br />
Photo: Koichi Miura
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