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Editorial Reviews

After 25 volumes of Johann Sebastian Bach's sacred cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan have found the time to make a disc of secular cantatas. J.S. Bach: Secular Cantatas BWV 210 & 211 combines one of Bach's wedding cantatas, "O holder tag," with "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht," the famous "Coffee Cantata." Soprano Carolyn Sampson takes the solo part in "O holder tag," and sings it beautifully with a very pure, "white" voice; however, it is a little too pure. One would prefer a more characterization of the text in a solo cantata that runs to nearly 36 minutes. It is tempting to speculate how Midori Suzuki might have sung this work, although this is not meant as a slight to Sampson, who does do a fine job overall in a treacherously difficult score. Suzuki takes Bach's instrumentation as lightly as it will go at one instrument to a part, and the predominant atmosphere of this performance is light and airy.

The "Coffee Cantata" is marvelously well done, with the performance perfectly capturing what the level of spontaneity might have been in the outdoor surroundings of the coffee garden of the Zimmermann coffee house in Leipzig, which was the first venue for the "Coffee Cantata." Bass Stephan Schreckenberger makes for a wonderfully blustery Schlendrian, and here we get the vocal characterization from Sampson that we did not hear in "O holder tag." The concluding chorus, "Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht," is done at a tremendously lively and rousing tempo, almost enough to make the listener want to get up and dance. The minor quibbles with the performance of "O holder tag" aside, J.S. Bach: Secular Cantatas BWV 210 & 211 is easily up to the standard already established by Suzuki and the redoubtable Bach Collegium Japan and should be enjoyed without reservation. Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide

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