Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra - J.S. Bach: Town Council Election Cantatas (2009)

Compared with John Eliot Gardiner's sumptuous and royally patronized Bach cantata series, the various releases of 1990s performances by veteran Ton Koopman with his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, all minimally packaged with brief booklet notes on his own Antoine Marchand label, may seem to lack grandeur. But they have plenty to recommend them, beginning with a stately tone lying in between Gardiner's warmth and Masaaki Suzuki's clean precision. Koopman had his pick of young singers, and he had a knack for selecting and bringing out the best. Highlights of this program drawn from recordings made between 1997 and 2003 include the contributions of the soaring voice of French soprano Sandrine Piau in the aria "Heil und Segen" (track 13) from the cantata Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille, BWV 120, and of countertenor Michael Chance in the large Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn, BWV 119. The programs are nicely assembled as well, with the three town council election cantatas -- works annually composed for the inauguration of the new town council during Bach's tenure in civic employment first in Mühlhausen and then in Leipzig -- making a logical group. These cantatas all date from the earlier phase of Bach's Leipzig career; later in life he could recycle cantatas that had been well received, which these apparently were. All the cantatas are appropriately festive works, with a good-sized orchestra including trumpets, recorders, and oboes matched by an explicitly indicated large continuo group. Here the orchestra is also matched by a fairly large choir, Koopman being the major holdout against the scaling-down of Bach performances, often to one voice per part. Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn is an especially satisfying and beautifully controlled performance, with the brass punching in even during accompanied recitative to build up pomp and circumstance. Highly recommended, with fine engineering in Amsterdam's Waalse Kerk.