Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano, Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, Craig Smith, conductor (Nonesuch) This recording is an outgrowth of Peter Sellars’ staging of J.S. Bach’s Cantatas BWV 82 and 199 ...

“Ich habe genug,” Bach’s Cantata No. 82, is commonly rendered in English as “I am content.” At the cantata’s center is a lullaby of consoling sweetness, generosity of spirit and somnolent blessedness, ...

In his cantatas and church works, Bach frequently employs lively dance rhythms to express the most exuberant forms of worship. In the conclusion to his cantata “Praise the Lord, My Soul” (BWV 143), ...

Nothing if not unpredictable, Nikolaus Harnoncourt follows his controversial reading of Porgy and Bess with three Bach cantatas, as his 80th birthday celebrations bring us full circle to a definable ...

Volume 16 in Ton Koopman's survey of the complete Bach cantatas contains a selection from the third cycle of the seasonal cantatas, composed for the Leipzig churches between 1725 and 1727. The best ...

It’s a rare singer whose artistry is so distinctive that, without any sense of willfulness or distortion, the music seems to bend in her image. Of the many fine singers who have taken on Bach’s solo ...

Bach was young, his burgeoning family still small, during his time in Weimar, a turning point in his early career. He wrote several fine cantatas there, including Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, ...

Bach Collegium Japan's deservedly acclaimed project to record all of Bach's cantatas has reached volume 51, which turns out to be an especially vibrant and generously filled collection of sacred ...

Cantatas, both sacred and secular, constitute a major part of Bach's catalogue of works. About 200 of them are extant from an estimated output of about 300. If this seems like a high number, it's ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. How did Bach’s cantatas sound at their first performances? Despite a wealth of research there are still many ...