Bach is known to have written at least four so-called “wedding” cantatas, only two of which survive complete. Both of these are included here, along with the celebrated super-virtuoso Cantata BWV 51, which has nothing to do with a wedding, but why not give one of today’s most gifted and versatile sopranos a chance to show off? Christine Schäfer certainly shows her stuff here, stuffing each of these solo tours de force with enough passionate energy to make up for a whole chorus. Too much, in some places, for my taste. But it’s hard to argue with her technique or to criticize her pleasant, bright tone, even though her voice doesn’t nearly have the evenness and ease of Dorothea Röschmann’s or the lyrical beauty of Elly Ameling’s. In fact, if you really want to hear some gorgeous singing, unequalled in this repertoire, you need go no further than Röschmann and Ameling. [10/24/1999]
