J.S. Bach: 75 Cantatas (1959-1979) [Blu-ray]

Karl Richter’s legendary recordings of the complete Bach cantatas, newly remastered in 24bit/192kHz and presented on two high fidelity Blu-ray Audio discs in a luxury hardcover edition. In the 1950s, when Karl Richter made his earliest recordings of sacred vocal music by Bach, his disciplined and vital approach was hailed as revelatory. Richter’s firm grounding in Lutheran theology, his intuitive feeling for the nobility of Bach’s music and his pronounced gift for eloquent phrasing all contribute to a performing style which possesses not only a warmth of sentiment and a distinctive expressive fervor but also a supple inner strength, strikingly evident in the chorale-based choruses which, in so many instances, provide the focal point of Bach’s cantatas.

Karl Richter’s recordings on Archiv of the complete Bach Cantatas are reference recordings of the repertoire through the genius combination of Richter’s leadership and the assembled forces of his meticulously trained choir, his handpicked group of instrumental obbligato players and leading Bach soloists. Now DG presents all 75 cantatas remastered in 24bit/192kHz on just TWO high-fidelity Blu-ray Audio discs in a 252pp hardcover book with the complete sung texts. Five HD Digital Albums are also being made available which together represent the entirety of the physical set.

This edition presents reference recordings of the 75 Cantatas from one of the most appreciated Bach performers of the 20th century and the assembled forces of leading Bach soloists including Julia Hamari, Edith Mathis, Ernst Haefliger, Peter Schreier, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Theo Adam and many more!

The 252 page booklet includes: Complete sung text in German and English; Essays by Nicholas Anderson about Richter as an interpreter of Bach; and by Walter Blankenburg about the genre of cantatas in the times of Johann Sebastian Bach; and new notes by Edith Mathis and Peter Schreier

In the 1950s, when Karl Richter made his earliest recordings of sacred vocal music by Bach, his disciplined and vital approach was hailed as revelatory. Richter’s firm grounding in Lutheran theology, his intuitive feeling for the nobility of Bach’s music and his pronounced gift for eloquent phrasing all contribute to a performing style which possesses not only a warmth of sentiment and a distinctive expressive fervour but also a supple inner strength, strikingly evident in the chorale-based choruses which, in so many instances, provide the focal point of Bach’s cantatas.

Richter’s Bach recordings spanned a period of almost 30 years. At first he played continuo under Ramin, then he directed his own performances before becoming, in 1958, a major artist for the Archiv label. But it was in the early 1970s that Archiv provided him with an opportunity of recording a cantata for every Sunday and Feast Day of the Lutheran church year.

The project, embracing 64 cantatas, most of them newly recorded for the Archiv cycle, was one which gave Richter particular pride and deep satisfaction; and it is here, above all, at the very heart of Bach’s creative world, that we can admire Richter’s skill in blending component parts to form a unifying whole. The most important of these were his meticulously trained choir of women’s and men’s voices, his handpicked group of instrumental obbligato players, and an outstanding line-up of soloists to whom he expressed the strongest artistic commitment and for whom he demonstrated undying loyalty.