Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten, Reinhard Goebel – Cantatas of the Bach Family (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten, Reinhard Goebel – Cantatas of the Bach Family (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:08 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © haenssler CLASSIC

As we reflect on Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons, we are all too likely to overlook the fact that there were six sons from two marriages who inclined towards Music. True, Maria Barbaras third son Johann Gottfried Bernhard, born in Weimar in 1715, more or less disappeared from view in 1737, and it is plain that Anna Magdalenas first son Gottfried Heinrich, born in 1724, was mentally handicapped: A great Genius, which however was never developed, wrote his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel in the family chronicle. For thirty years, making and writing music, he had been the musical front-runner in Saxony and Thuringia: the vanguard was located wherever he was, in his hands and at his writing-desk. Increasingly, twenty-year-olds and a few late starters in their thirties were coming on to the market and showing Bach a new way forward: the galant style, spreading north from Naples ever since 1715, and the flamboyant, ever more richly ornamented music of the late Baroque, constantly threatening to break down under the weight of emblematic connotation and religious symbolism, in contrast to that simpler form, written by mortals for mortals, distinguished by its slow, easily comprehensible harmony and its truly singable melodies in what was at most an expanded two-part structure.

Albums pairing music by Johann Sebastian Bach with that of his sons come along every so often, but one like this, examining a single genre, is not so common despite its obvious potential. The execution is not flawless, but the music on this album is rare, interesting, and well performed. Listeners actually get only two cantatas by the Bach sons, and the program closes with the 1747 version of the Cantata No. 82, “Ich habe genug,” BWV 82, beautifully sung by Benjamin Appl but doesn’t add much to the program. There are also a pair of symphonies by (probably) Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, the latter more experimental in its wild voice-leading than the usually unorthodox C.P.E. The two actual cantatas by Bach’s sons are quite intriguing. Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach’s Pygmalion is a secular work for bass and ensemble, a semi-dramatic piece with lots of recitative. The intriguing thing is that Johann Christoph Friedrich seems to do anything to avoid following his father’s example: there is a bit of Vivaldi here, Handel there, as well as more modern influences like Gluck. The opening sacred cantata, C.P.E. Bach’s Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande, Wq deest (the work gets its world premiere here, and no doubts are raised about its authorship), is again closer to J.S. Bach’s example. There’s plenty more to hear, and Reinhard Goebel, leading the Berliner Barock Solisten, expands upon the finer points in his notes. This may be of most interest to devotees of the Bachs, but it’s listenable for anyone.

Tracklist:

1. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande, Wq. deest: No. 1, Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande (02:52)
2. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande, Wq. deest: No. 2, Im Schweiße meines Angesichts (01:09)
3. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande, Wq. deest: No. 3, Lieber Gott, es ist das Deine (05:17)
4. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Symphony in F Major, Wq. deest: I. Allegro (03:37)
5. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Symphony in F Major, Wq. deest: II. Adagio (02:00)
6. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Symphony in F Major, Wq. deest: III. Allegro assai (01:40)
7. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 1, Abgöttin meiner Seele! (02:10)
8. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 2, Ihr Götter welche Phantaseyn! (07:56)
9. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 3, Nicht taub, nicht fühllos, nein (00:39)
10. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 4, Ach, dass mein irdisch Ohr nicht fähig ist (01:52)
11. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 5, Ach, es muss ein Teil der Gottheit (01:40)
12. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 6, O Venus! Saturnia! Bracht ich nur dir (02:44)
13. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 7, O Himmel! Der Boden wankt (03:38)
14. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 8, Nun senkt sie Haupt und Hand herab (03:02)
15. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 9, Bald sollen diese Lippen mich (06:38)
16. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 10, Ja, diese leichte Mühe, dies selige Geschäft (00:26)
17. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Pygmalion, Wf XVIII:5: No. 11, Allgütige! Wofern dich hier noch (02:55)
18. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Symphony in B-Flat Major, F 71: I. Allegro (04:44)
19. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Symphony in B-Flat Major, F 71: II. Andante (04:01)
20. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Symphony in B-Flat Major, F 71: III. Presto (01:39)
21. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (1747 Version): No. 1, Ich habe genug (06:11)
22. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (1747 Version): No. 2, Ich habe genug (01:17)
23. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (1747 Version): No. 3, Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen (06:22)
24. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (1747 Version): No. 4, Mein Gott! Wann kömmt das schöne (00:46)
25. Benjamin Appl, Berliner Barock Solisten & Reinhard Goebel – Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (1747 Version): No. 5, Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod (03:40)

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