Cantatas Vol 25: BWV86, BWV87, BWV97, BWV44, BWV150, BWV183

"Gardiner's analyses of the music are both personal and revealing, first to read, and then to hear in practice. This is Bach at a very high level - a match for anything else that is currently available on disc."(Choral & Song Choice of the Month BBC Music Aug 2008)

SDG's spring 2008 release combines Cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Easter with those written for the Sunday after Ascension Day. The first set of Cantatas were recorded in Dresden. It was here that Bach had been crowned unopposed keyboard champion in 1717, and also where the first two movements of what we now know as the B minor Mass were first performed in 1733. The opening cantata, BWV 86 Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch is a great example of Bach's skill to reinforce religious texts and their meanings. The final piece in the programme is BWV 97 In allen meinen Taten, a cantata without liturgical designation first performed in 1734. It uses the haunting Heinrich Isaac hymn tune 'Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen' in both its opening and concluding movements.

Recorded in Sherborne Abbey, BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich has no specified liturgical designation but is particularly apt in the period between Easter and Ascension. The two Leipzig cantatas Bach wrote for Exaudi share the title Sie werden euch in den Bann tun. BWV 44 was composed as part of Bach's first Leipzig cycle in 1724 and BWV 183 followed a year later. To balance the performance of BWV 150, the disc ends with Johann Christoph Bach's five-voiced motet Fürchte dich nicht. This is an uplifting programme recorded in a perfect acoustic setting.