Michi Gaigg - J.C. Bach: Salve Regina (2001)

In his review of Johann Christian Bach's Op. 13 Piano Concertos (page 20 of the July/August 2001 issue) Nick Morgan made the financially ruinous discovery that Johann Sebastian's youngest son was really rather a good composer. Financially ruinous, because CPO is leading the JCB renaissance with a hard-to-resist complete orchestral works series of over 20 discs. Bad news, Nick now it's starting on the vocal works. Called 'Salve regina', this revealing new disc takes us back to Christian's early Italian period (1754-62). All three pieces are recorded here for the first time and testify to the composer's pragmatic conversion to the Catholic faith and his ability to transfer the extravagant vocal style of the opera house (where he was principally engaged) to the church. What would his father have said? The vocal duties here are fairly evenly shared between Emma Kirkby, who sings the Salve regina, and tenor Markus Schäfer, who takes the exuberant motet Si nocte tenebrosa; they share the limelight in the almost frivolous setting of Psalm 113, Laudate pueri Dominum. Kirkby is supremely secure in the high-wire acrobatics required in the Salve regina: there's a superbly controlled 11-second messa di voce at the very outset and she manages to make real music out of the outrageous vocal contortions demanded by the aria 'Ad te clamamus'. If she exudes exemplary clarity and purity, Schäfer, with more rawness of tone and pitch, excels in precisely the kind of on-the-edge excitement which makes the fast and furious virtuoso showcase Si nocte tenebrosa the highlight of the disc. The only minor drawback is the rather characterless recording acoustic where everyone is quite closely miked in what sounds like a small studio. Even so, the music's effervescent early-Classical charm remains sharp. Johann Christian Bach's sacred vocal music has up to now been pretty much a closed book if we are to judge from this disc, it looks as if the pickings will be rich indeed. Simon Heighes