Cantatas Nos BWV140 & BWV147

"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."
(Gramophone June 1992)