Archiv announces that "Sir John Eliot Gardiner, together with the musicians of the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, will perform all the surviving church cantatas by Bach during the course of the year 2000, on the liturgical days for which they were composed, in different churches around Europe." Wow! This millennial act of homage is the stimulus for, if not the source of, the two Archiv recordings. The Easter cantatas were recorded in April 1999 and the "Timeless Works of Consolation" back in 1989. The earlier set, previously available as 429 782-2, has been reissued in the "Bach Cantata Pilgrimage" format, interestingly enough with a newly written program note. The booklets list 12 projected recordings of 27 cantatas (including two other previously released discs). Whether Gardiner's pilgrimage will result in yet another integral recording of the cantatas remains to be seen, though one wonders: If not, why not?

Recordings aside, this promises to be a formidable undertaking. There are about 200 extant cantatas to prepare and perform, an average of nearly four a week. Simply engaging and scheduling the necessary soloists must have been huge. The ensemble will be constantly on the move, and one suspects that it will be expected to perform at a higher level than Bach's own musicians. Of course, Gardiner will have certain advantages over the originator, beginning with the simple fact that he won't be performing a world premiere every week or so. Then there is his choir's professionalism--he won't have to deal with unruly choirboys--though musicians, even professionals, tend to be a fidgety lot. He should have enough parts to go around, and the ink won't smudge on newly copied sheets. But he'll have to make educated guesses about musical details that Bach would have explained in person but neglected to write down--and it's unlikely that he will feel free to "fix" (i.e., rewrite) anything that doesn't go well in practice. If a year seems dauntingly short to absorb so vast a quantity of music, it's also a long time to maintain the focus needed to do it properly. One can only marvel and wish them well.

Gardiner's choice of Easter cantatas is interesting. Rather than the usual tandem of BWV 4 and 31, he has recorded two cantatas for the second day of Easter. Bleib bei uns, BWV 6, is sweet; Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, is dynamic. No. 6 is the more successfully realized here. Gardiner's brisk tempo of the opening chorus of No. 66 taxes even his expert singers, and at times his countertenor, Michael Chance, sounds more than a little stressed. Koopman's version for Erato, the only duplication is this entire review group, is more effective.

The earlier set is entirely convincing. It includes two familiar works, the early funeral cantata, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106, and Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl, BWV 198, which was composed as a memorial for the then recently deceased Electress Christiane Eberhardine in 1727. It's widely accepted that the lost Saint Mark Passion--currently the subject of a number of reconstructive efforts, including one by Ton Koopman--was derived from Cantata 198. The third piece, though nominally a cantata, is really a motet, composed about midway during Bach's Leipzig tenure. Despite the reservations mentioned above, both recordings can be recommended. They serve both as a reminder that until now Gardiner's attention to Bach's cantatas has been quite limited, and as a hint of hope for better things to come.

The major surprise in this group comes from Masaaki Suzuki and BIS. Those of you who have been collecting this superlative series will recall that Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, Cantata 21, has already appeared in Volume 6. Since BWV 21 is one of the early cantatas that Bach recast to suit his later circumstances, Suzuki generously provided three alternative movements to go with the earlier performance. Koopman's recording included an alternate version of the third chorus--fortuitously not one of Suzuki's three bonus tracks. Forced to choose, Harnoncourt (Teldec) opted for the Leipzig scoring with trombones; Rilling eschewed the heavy brass. In fact, the story is even more complicated. Bach himself devised at least four different versions of this cantata: two for Weimar, one for Hamburg (during his Cöthen years), and one for Leipzig. Volume 6 used the Hamburg scoring of 1720, with alternate movements from Weimar (1713); the present version is from Leipzig (1723). That Bach used this cantata in so many different settings is ample evidence of its quality and broad appeal. Cantata 21 is, in many respects, the culmination of Bach's early style.

Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, is of course best known as the source of "Jesu, Joy of My Desiring." Like the namers of the metropolis on the Hudson, Bach obviously though it good enough to bear repeating. (I'm trying to think of another cantata movement that repeats itself, but I've drawn a blank.) These two extraordinary cantatas, beautifully performed in state-of-the-art sound, make this disc an excellent starting-point disc for anyone new to the Bach cantatas. Incidentally, Suzuki introduces a new soprano, Yukaru Nonoshita, here, and she proves to be the equal of her more familiar colleagues.

With this ninth volume Erato's series continues to move from strength to strength. Again, Koopman explores music from the first cycle of Leipzig cantatas, though the secular cantata, Durchlauster Leopold, BWV 173a, was composed in Cöthen for the birthday of Prince Leopold. Bach later reworked it for Leipzig as BWV 173 (included in Volume 7). Apparently Bach made so few changes in the revision that he didn't bother to recopy the score but merely wrote the new texts under the old ones. Cantata 66 also had its origins in a secular cantata composed for Cöthen, but this time we hear the later version. The dramatic cantata Wachet! betet! betet! wachet!, BWV 70, was adapted from a Weimar cantata. One other cantata was not composed for Leipzig proper: Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest, BWV 194, was written for the dedication of a new organ in nearby Störmthal that Bach had tested and found worthy. The other seven, however, were Leipzig originals. By then Bach had settled on a fairly standard model, opening with a large choral movement, followed by alternating arias and recitatives, and closing with a simple chorale setting. But he was anything but a formula composer, so there were numerous exceptions. Cantatas 154, 166, and 86 (and 173a) have no opening choral movements. The hypothesis that any modestly large sampling of Bach's cantatas will reveal an astonishing range of emotions is proven here once more. Without any of Bach's "blockbuster" cantatas, Volume 9 is still fascinating from start to finish.

It's interesting that the Teldec series seemed to use a quite a few bass soloists, whereas Koopman's (and Suzuki's) soloists are pretty stable at the bottom but seem to change a lot at the top. One is always prepared for disappointment when Lisa Larsson is listed for only one cantata, but then it turns out that Sibylla Rubens, who does most of the work here, and Caroline Stam are really good too. Koopman's readings suggest that he was born to conduct Bach; who's to say that he wasn't? Erato rates the usual plaudits for sound and packaging. If you are collecting this series, don't stop now. If you aren't, maybe you should be.

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