Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Chor: "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
2. Rezitativ: "Er kommt, er kommt, der Bräutigam kommt!" - Peter Schreier, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
3. Arie (Duett): "Wann kommst du, mein Heil?" - Edith Mathis, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
4. Choral: "Zion hört die Wächter singen" - Peter Schreier, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
5. Rezitativ: "So geh' herein zu mir" - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
6. Arie: "Mein Freund ist mein!" - Edith Mathis, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
7. Choral: "Gloria sei dir gesungen" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
8. 1. Aria: "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen" - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
9. 2. Recitativo: "Mein Wandel auf der Welt" - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
10. 3. Aria: "Endlich, endlich wird mein Joch" - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
11. 4. Recitativo: "Ich stehe fertig und bereit" - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
12. 5. Choral: "Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
13. Aria: "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen" - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
14. Recitativo: "Wir beten zu dem Tempel an" - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
15. Aria: "Höchster, Höchster mache deine Güte ferner alle Morgen neu" - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
16. Chorale: "Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
17. Aria: "Alleluja" - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter

Disc 2:

1. 1. Coro: "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" - Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
2. 2. Recitativo: "Gebenedeiter Mund!" - John van Kesteren, Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter
3. 3. Aria: "Schäme dich, o Seele nicht" - Hertha Töpper, Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter
4. 4. Recitativo: "Verstockung kann Gewaltige verblenden" - Kieth Engen, Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter
5. 5. Aria: "Bereite dir, Jesu" - Ursula Buckel, Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter
6. 6. Choral: "Wohl mir, dass ich Jesum habe" - Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
7. 7. Aria: "Hilf, Jesu, hilf" - John van Kesteren, Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter
8. 8. Recitativo: "Der höchsten Allmacht Wunderhand" - Hertha Töpper, Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter
9. 9. Aria: "Ich will von Jesu Wundern singen" - Kieth Engen, Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter
10. 10. Choral: "Jesus bleibet meine Freude" - Solistengemeinschaft Der Bachwoche Ansbach, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
11. 1. Sinfonia - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
12. 2. Versus 1: "Christ lag in Todesbanden" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
13. 3. Versus 2: "Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
14. 4. Versus 3: "Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
15. 5. Versus 4: "Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
16. 6. Versus 5: "Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm" - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
17. 7. Versus 6: "So feiern wir das hohe Fest" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
18. 8. Versus 7: "Wir essen und wir leben wohl" - Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
19. 1. Adagio: Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram
20. 2. Recit: Die Welt wird wieder neu - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram
21. 3. Aria: Phöbus eilt mit schnellen Pferden - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram
22. 4. Recit: D'rum sucht auch Amor sein Vergnügen - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram
23. 5. Aria: Wenn die Frühlingslüfte streichen - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram
24. 6. Recit: Und dieses ist das Glücke - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram
25. 7. Aria: Sich üben im Lieben - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
26. 8. Recit: So sei das Band der keuschen Liebe - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram
27. 9. Gavotte: Sehet in Zufriedenheit - Maria Stader, Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter, Hedwig Bilgram

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13660 in Music
• Released on: 1997-11-10
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 150 minutes

Customer Reviews

Justly famous,and for the most part just fabulous !
This is a most generous collection of two well-filled (each disc more than exceeds 70 minutes) CDs featuring six of Bach's most expressive cantatas.I have always been very fond of Karl Richter's marvellous and moving 1961 recording (simply the best of all,I feel)of BWV 147,and you will find it here in all it's glory.Anyone just starting out to explore Bach's superbly rewarding and enriching canon of sacred cantatas could not do better than start their voyage here.From the joyful opening chorus,"Herz und mund und tat und leben" to the justly famous "Jesu,joy of man's desiring" chorale that concludes it;you have a musical experience that will undoubtedly leave you ravenous for more of the same.Luckily,you can then immediately tuck into the sublime BWV 140.Everyone surely knows it as the "Sleepers awake" cantata,but it also features a couple of really attractive duets for soprano (as the soul) and bass (as Jesus).Edith Mathis and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau are excellent here,and in the second of these duets,"Mein freund ist mein !" (My beloved is mine !) the obbligato oboe (Manfred Clement) is just heavenly.

BWV 51,"Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen" (Rejoice in the Lord in all lands !) is a cantata that could not be more exuberant if it tried,with that astonishingly virtuosic interplay between soprano and trumpet.Maria Stader and Willi Bauer make a damn good pairing here,but when it comes to a first recommendation of this brilliant little cantata,I would always come down strongly in favour of the Emma Kirkby tour de force for Sir John Eliot Gardiner.Still,this is not too bad to be going on with.

In the remaining two sacred cantatas,
BWV 4,"Christ lag in todesbanden"(Christ lay in the clutches of death) and BWV 56,"Ich will den kreuzstab gerne tragen"(Gladly I bear the cross) Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau amply displays the vocal qualities and interpretative intelligence that leaves us,three decades later,in no doubt as to why he is considered such a legend.

The final cantata BWV 202,"Weichet nur,betrubte schatten" (Hence dismal shadows) is a quite charming and disarming musical endorsement for wedded bliss,and despite it's recording vintage of 1959 comes up bright and breezy in this particular transfer.It's a nicely varied piece,and the highlight for me is that jewel of a soprano (Maria Stader once more,and a dozen years earlier !) aria,"Sich uben in lieben" (To be loving to one another).

To conclude then:this is a very generous package of cantatas that richly deserve the epithet "famous".Perhaps in one or two instances the period performance movement of recent times is able to shine a brighter spotlight upon Bach's genius,but overall Karl Richter and his luminescent lie-up of vocal and instrumental stars deliver performances that have more than stood the test of time,and as a result make this two disc set a compulsory purchase.