Bach: Kantaten - Quasthoff / Berliner Barock Solisten / RIAS Kammerchor / Rainer Kussmaul Label: Deutsche Grammophon Catalog#: 474 505-2 Format: SACD, Compilation Country: Europe Released: 2004 Genre: Classical, Sacred Tracklist: Cantata "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen", BWV 56 1. Aria: "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen" [7:01] 2. Recitativo: "Mein Wandel auf der Welt" [2:06] 3. Aria: "Endlich, endlich wird mein Joch" [5:43] 4. Recitativo: "Ich stehe fertig und bereit" [1:47] 5. Choral: "Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder" [1:28] Der Friede sei mit dir: Cantata, BWV 158 1. Recit: Der Friede sei mit dir [1:43] 2. Aria & Choral: Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde [5:49] 3. Recit: Nun Herr, regiere meinen Sinn [1:33] 4. Choral: Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm [1:14] Cantata "Ich habe genug" BWV 82 1. Aria: Ich habe genug, ich habe den Heiland [6:48] 2. Recitativo: Ich habe genug! Mein Trost ist nur allein [1:16] 3. Aria: Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen [9:07] 4. Recitativo: Mein Gott! wann kommt das schöne Nun! [0:49] 5. Aria: Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod [3:19] [quote] The celebrated baritone Thomas Quasthoff has recently signed a new exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon to continue the highly successful collaboration, which reached another peak when the singer was awarded his second Grammy “Best Classical Singer”, for his recording of Schubert Orchestrated Songs with Anne Sofie von Otter accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Claudio Abbado. Following the release of his critically acclaimed Romantic Songbook with a collection of lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Loewe, Mendelssohn, Wolf and Strauss earlier this year, here is his new solo project with great commercial potential: Bach Cantatas with the Berliner Barock Solisten (members of the Berlin Philharmonic, among them Albrecht Mayer) under the direction of Rainer Kussmaul, and the RIAS-Kammerchor (chamber choir). The album features the two well-known and popular bass solo cantatas Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (BWV 56) and Ich habe genug (BWV 82), and the cantata Der Friede sei mit dir (BWV 158), three classics of the Baroque repertoire (Thomas Quasthoff numbers the aria “Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen” from Cantata BWV 82 among “the most beautiful things in all of Baroque music”). Bach Cantatas is the result of Thomas Quasthoff’s and the Berliner Barock Solisten’s planned tour of this repertoire in Germany pre-Christmas 2004 and autumn 2005 – and January 2006 in the USA. The singer has already given a number of concerts with this ensemble – and discovered that the musical ideas of these Berlin Philharmonic players are very closely related to his own. The secret of this successful collaboration can most plainly be found in the manner in which Quasthoff and the Berliner Barock Solisten recreate Bach’s musical language for a new audience. The strings play on modern instruments but use Baroque bows, which serves to make the sound homogeneous and plastic but not too thin. And Quasthoff’s bass-baritone voice, with its natural vibrato, blends perfectly into this ensemble. An enormous attraction of Thomas Quasthoff’s Bach interpretation is that he approaches the works using his expressive powers; he does more than illustrate the emotional states in Bach’s music – he breathes into them something entirely his own. “My approach to Bach” he says, “is marked by a highly personal experience of this music. And this personal experience is what I’m trying to convey to the listeners.” Thomas Quatshoff was recently awarded with the Grammy 2006 for this album. It is the third Grammy Thomas Quasthoff is honoured with.[/quote] [quote]Review by James Leonard 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. [i]allmusicguide[/i][/quote]