Bach: Cantatas

• Main performer: Thomas Quasthoff
• Booklet languages: English
• Libretto languages: German, English
• Time: 49:58
• Release Date: 2004

Review

Sooner or later, if you're a German baritone with aspirations of grandeur, you've got to take a shot at Bach's two great baritone cantatas, the gloomy Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (BWV 56) and the doomy Ich habe genug (BWV 82). Thus it was inevitable that Thomas Quasthoff, arguably the best German baritone of the past ten years, would have to take on Ich will and Ich habe. But given that the gloom and doom weltanschauung of Bach's Lutheran Germany is all but ignored in these cheerfully fundamentalist times, how does Quasthoff, the former thalidomide baby with a voice of burnished bronze, do at projecting dismal despair?

Thankfully, not all that well. Not only does Quasthoff perform with his by now customary strength and elegance, but Quasthoff interprets with his by now customary warmth and compassion. Quasthoff knows full well the depths of doom and gloom in Bach's texts, but he also knows that despite it all, life is good and his singing projects a love of life that few other performers can match. That Quasthoff's Ich will and Ich habe are separated on this disc by a powerfully affirmative Der Friede sei mit dir (BWV 158) only makes the message more positive. The choral singing by members of the RIAS-Kammerchor is subtle and strong and the orchestral playing of the Berliner Barock Solisten is nuanced and sensitive. Deutsche Grammophon's sound is clear and detailed. ~ James Leonard, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Johann Sebastian Bach	Cantata No. 56, "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen," BWV 56 (BC A146)	18:16
Johann Sebastian Bach	Cantata No. 158, "Der Friede sei mit dir," BWV 158 (BC A61)	10:27
Johann Sebastian Bach	Cantata No. 82, "Ich habe genug," BWV 82 (BC A169)	21:15

Previous:	Bach: Cantata, BWV 202; Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, BWV 1046; Schumann: Symphony No. 4
Next:	Bach: Cantatas "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" & "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben"