john eliot gardiner bach cantata pilgrimage

His thoughtful, refined approach is strikingly similar to Suzuki's cycle on BIS, though Gardiner's versions sound just a bit warmer.Īlthough his interpretations offer the finest attributes of period practice – transparency and litheness – there's a long-breathed musicality here that can be lacking in other accounts. It's in delicate or intimate music that Gardiner shines most luminously, and some may find that he unduly emphasises the contemplative. With the John Eliot Gardiner Bach Cantata Pilgrimage series, as issued on Soli Deo Gloria, all recorded during a live tour and gradually parsed out in. Special mention must be made of the artistry of tenor Mark Padmore, who maintains his sweet, ringingly clear tone even in the demanding leaps and roulades of his aria in No 95. And there's the extraordinary opening chorus of No 8, with its seemingly endless melodic tendrils, chiming flute part and plucked strings, sounding like a celestial dance. Among the many mind-blowing, beautiful moments is the deliciously syncopated contralto aria from No 30, sung with poise by Wilke te Brummelstroete and graced by playing of magical delicacy from the EBS. The interpretations are consistently fine – often superb, in fact – with surprisingly few wrong steps or disappointments, especially given the unusually gruelling performance schedule that produced them. The CDs are cased in a handsomely designed hardbound book, complete with texts, translations and Gardiner's extensive, informative notes based on a journal he kept during the pilgrimage. Soli Deo Gloria's presentation is first class. Here are the first two instalments of the complete cycle. In 2000 John Eliot Gardiner commemorated the 250th anniversary of Bach's death with theBach Cantata Pilgrimage, a year-long European tour by the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir that presented all of Bach's extant cantatas on the appropriate liturgical feast days. + 4 additional CDs previously released by Deutsche Grammophon. The CDs in the box are packed in individual sleeves with Steve McCurry's evocative portrait photos from the existing series, so the 'feel' of the collection is much the same as the individual releases.ĥ6 audio CDs All 28 existing volumes from our Bach Cantatas series John Eliot Gardiner set out on a wild and risky journey: to perform all of Bach’s cantatas in venues around the world from Christmas 1999 through the end of 2000, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. 'One of the most ambitious musical projects of all time' - Gramophoneįor the first time on one label, the complete live recordings from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in an elegant, limited edition box set.

John eliot gardiner bach cantata pilgrimage