Studio Masters

Christian Senn, laBarocca & Ruben Jais – The Solo Cantatas for Bass (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 54:24 minutes | 601 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa

Of Bach’s two known religious cantatas and 15 known profane cantatas, only two make use of bass in the vocal section: the famous 1727 BWV 82 Ich habe genug, which has been recycled for various different vocal soloists over the years, and Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen BWV 56 from 1726. In order to avoid putting out just another recording of these cantatas with the same programme as the dozens which have been recorded over nearly sixty years (by such artists as Hans Hotter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gérard Souzay, Gerhard Hüsch, Hermann Prey, John Shirley-Quirk, Bernard Kruysen, Philippe Huttenlocher, Max von Egmond, Siegfried Lorenz, Siegmund Nimsgern, Matthias Goerne, Thomas Quasthoff…), even though this new version is sung by Christian Senn, a little originality is needed. And that’s what we have here. In addition to the two hits mentioned above, we have the rare cantata BWV 158 Der Friede sei mit dir – we don’t know the exact date it was written, possibly Weimar around 1715, or perhaps only around 1730 in Leipzig. This piece is surely a re-working of an older, lost cantata. Some sources give it as the “cantata for bass and soprano” but in reality this is a serious error of observation: for sure, the aria which makes up the second movement is clearly marked Aria & Chorale, the chorale being restricted to the soprano register, but in reality it was to be sung by “one or several sopranos in the choir”, and certainly not for a solo voice. So it’s a cantata (unfinished or incomplete) for solo bass, and so this record is a kind of complete collection of Bach’s three cantatas for this vocal line-up.

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