Pygmalion & Raphaël Pichon - Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets (2020) [Hi-Res]

Much as, for many listeners, the mere fact that this new Bach motets recording is from Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion will be reason enough to give it a spin, there's actually an even more noteworthy draw to this particular programme: that interspersed between the six Bach motets are three sixteenth century masterpieces drawn from the Florilegium Portense, a collection of almost 365 choral works from 58 leading sixteenth century Italian and German composers which was first published in 1618, and which in Bach's day was on the shelves of most central German choir schools – regularly used within the services, and a constant source of compositional inspiration too. What's more, the relationship with Bach himself is proven, because as Leipzig kantor he purchased new copies of the collection both in 1729 and 1737; and if you narrow in on Bach's handful of motets then the link deepens, because while the composition of his hundreds of cantatas was dictated by the liturgical calendar and often involved working with a librettist, his motets were composed under no such strictures, leaving him genuinely at liberty to draw on the Florilegium Portense in whichever way he fancied.

So the first beauty of Pygmalion's programme is the connections you're hearing at every turn between these deeply expressive motets of Bach's, and those of his forebears. Take the way his emotionally potent double-choir Komm, Jesu, komm BWV 229 comes off the back of the sensuously soaring antiphonal writing of Osculetur me osculo oris sui by Vincenzo Bertolusi (c. 1550-1608). Or the way the peacefully sombre homophony of Jacobus Gallus's (1550-1591) Ecce quomodo moritus Justus is followed by the equally homophonic chorale opening to Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227.

Add crisp, supple and silvery choral delivery, exuding understanding of and passion for the texts, plus warmly delicate and unobtrusive instrumental accompaniments, and in the Bach always the ghost of its dance roots, and it's hard to imagine how Pichon and his gang could have made this one any more enjoyable. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz