Cantata No. 4 -- Christ lag in Todesbanden (Kalmus Edition)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Kantate BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden Entstehungszeit: 1708, Mühlhausen Anlass: 1. Osterfesttag Text: Martin Luther Suzuki volume: 1 Mark, on the highly subjective nilsean 0-10 quality scale: 10 Nils Pilgrimage Verzeichnis NPV 1 Since my iRead-iReview habit of briefly recording thoughts I might have about books I read is proving worthwhile (to me, and...more

Johann Sebastian Bach: Kantate BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden Entstehungszeit: 1708, Mühlhausen Anlass: 1. Osterfesttag Text: Martin Luther Suzuki volume: 1 Mark, on the highly subjective nilsean 0-10 quality scale: 10 Nils Pilgrimage Verzeichnis NPV 1 Since my iRead-iReview habit of briefly recording thoughts I might have about books I read is proving worthwhile (to me, and occasionally to readers of my comments), as it sharpens my mind (for the required number of minutes each time) and produces a convenient personal archive (where the process is more important than the end result), I now intend to slowly embark on a peaceful pilgrimage through one of the most extraordinary gifts ever bestowed on humankind (almost for free): the two hundred or so Bach Cantatas. The plan is to do so Bach-chronologically, and to help me I have (a) acquired a near complete set of two hundred partiturae (mostly Klavierauszüge in the Edition Breitkopf series, occasionally also the Kalmus Editions) and (b) decided to collect the excellent series of CDs by the Bach Collegium Japan, led by Masaaki Suzuki. The Suzuki series follows the Bach chronology, started in 1995, and may use twenty years for its completion. So my pilgrimage is a humble one (and I may need twenty years too). I attempt to read the score carefully while listening to Suzuki (and sing along when I have the chance), Kantate by Kantate. I do not plan any heavy musical analysis (such is easily found inside CD sleeve notes), but wish rather to record some humble thoughts as I walk through my pilgrim land. *** So this is BWV 4 from 1708, probably the very first Bach Kantate. It happens to be Utterly Famous, much more often performed than his other earlier cantatas. I have taken part in performances (B or T), with different chamber choirs. I love all of it. I suppose it is now customary to perform it "slimly", essentially with a small string group to accompany choir and soloists, but I recall being positively overwhelmed by the fuller and more orchestral version that Karl Richter used, adding on trombones (collar parte), to much effect. I am astounded by the full maturity of the 23 year old Bach. Everything is in perfect place, and his imagination is flowering. "Word painting" is in sight: listen to the Bass solist singing "das ist hoch an des Kreuzes Stamm", "painting" the cross (bar 28). Also, it is magical when after twenty minutes with "vorschlag" for each line, we sing *first note on beat 1* only once through the whole piece, namely on *Christ* in "Christus will die Koste sein" (bar 8, final movement). I wish this to be truly shocking! to the congregation, I hope they all roll bewildredly off their pews at this tune break (but in all probability they do not notice, of course, as Bach surely also must have thought -- but he noticed, and so does He, one must hope). Finally noteworthy is that every movement (Satz) ends with "Halleluja!", even when the overall tone is a rather sombre Easter e-moll. The only major chord is the final one -- also shocking! I must also record here that I fell instantly in love (or perhaps "in admiration") with Masaaki Suzuki as soon as I *saw* (and later heard) this Volume 1 in the long series-to-be. His Vision is Pure and Great and it shines visibly (and later audibly) from this CD. I admire a man who can write the following, with the fullness of his heart and mind, a Japanese fifty years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki: "Now, in the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, we are launching this new recording project or our own here in the Far East. It is my hope that Bach's music contains a message which can touch the human heart, regardless of nationality or cultural tradition, filling hungry spirits and spreading inner peace. The 50th anniversary of VJ-Day (15th August 1995) Masaaki Suzuki" NLH, January 2008   hide