As part of John Eliot Gardiner’s audacious and now much scaled-back “Bach Pilgrimage” project–to perform and record during this anniversary year of the composer’s death, in various churches around Europe, all the existing Bach cantatas on the liturgical days for which they were composed–this recording, with its respectful attention to Bach’s music and its fine recording quality can in one sense claim a positive place in the catalog: it offers on one disc two of the lesser-known Easter week cantatas. However, no matter how reputable the performers, you still get the sense that you’re listening to a decent concert performance–clean, refined, technically competent–but not a reference version that offers a reason for repeated listening. Indeed, how could we hope for more from the recordings in this series, given the performing/recording schedule and the tremendous amount of complex music expected from choir, soloists, and orchestra? What’s more, of the available CD versions this one at only 48 minutes provides skimpy value. Why not include another work such as the Easter Sunday cantata BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden or BWV 31, Der Himmel lacht! die Erde jubilieret, either of which would have rounded out the program nicely, bringing the disc length to a reasonable and competitive 70 minutes?
Of course, we are talking about a question of budget and contractual conditions, but for this disc’s full price consumers can get more exciting and insightful performances of these works–and more–elsewhere. Further, excellent specially priced Bach sets are available from labels such as Harmonia Mundi. For Bach conducting and performing at its best, check out Herreweghe (period instruments) on Harmonia Mundi or Rilling (modern instruments) on Hänssler. Gardiner has made his name performing and recording this kind of repertoire, including some excellent Handel oratorios in the 1980s, but this is one project that has the words “self-indulgent” and “wasteful” written all over it.
