BACH: Cantatas Nos. 36, Soar joyfully aloft; No. 47, For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; No. 27, Who knows how close I am to my end? – Hana Blazikova, soprano/ Robin Blaze, countertenor/ Satoshi Mizukoshi, tenor/ Oeter Kooij, bass/ Bach Collegium Japan/ Masaaki Suzuki, conductor – BIS multichannel SACD 1861, 68:27 [Distr. by Qualiton] ****:
This is volume 47 of Suzuki’s ongoing Bach cantata series, featuring works from the year 1726. Soar joyfully aloft is for the first Sunday in Advent, first performed in 1731, but had it beginnings as a cantata for the birthday of a teacher as early as 1725, and then recycled yet again in a shorter form as a prequel to this edition. It is an exuberant work with some wonderful oboe d’amore passages. Bach divided the piece into two sections, and at almost a half hour it makes for a substantial introduction to the Christmas season.
The other two works here mark the sixteenth and seventeenth Sundays after Trinity, Who knows how close I am to my end?, and For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, both tied together by a common theme of fearfulness of the approach of death and the actions needed to ensure a good outcome in this life. One interesting note as regards BWV 27 is that the final chorale is not by Bach at all, but instead a five-part version by Johann Rosenmuller, former teacher of the Thomas School, whose piece would be well-known to most listeners of the time as a part of the standard funeral melodies from which it was taken.
Suzuki and company continue their excellent work in this superb series, easily the best- sounding of the complete, fuller-chorus versions currently going, done in excellent surround sound. Not much else to say here except keep it coming!
— Steven Ritter
