DiscountDelight - Bach: Cantatas BWV 82 and 199
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List Price: $16.98
Our Price: $12.98
Your Save: $ 4.00 ( 24% )
Availability: Usually ships in 9 to 14 days
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075597969221
Label: Nonesuch
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Nonesuch
Release Date: 2003-09-23
Studio: Nonesuch
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Supreme
Comment: Supreme musicianship and vocalism by the mistress of early music. A brilliant Cd and a must for every lover of Bach Cantatas.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ethereal
Comment: I admit to being a novice at hearing a lot of classical vocal music. I do listen to operas and I quite enjoy a lot of Bach - he is my favorite composer. I have heard of Lieberson a lot over the past few years. Last week, I stayed as a guest in a house where this cd was playing and I felt my whole spirit rise up. The musical selections are truly sublime and Ms Lieberson's voice is so magical. I enjoyed listening to it in perfect silence so that each note was audible and appreciated. It's truly a masterpiece. Thank goodness that music of this quality is still produced and out there. Thanks to the great master Johann and to the ethereal and talented Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
Customer Rating:
Summary: lessons
Comment: Thomas Frey's review makes a very important point which amazon.com should take to heart. I've experienced the same thing many times, and it's damned irritating. I'm sure amazon customers would appreciate wiser consideration in the matter.
Grady Harp says perfectly everything that must be said about Lieberson and this recording. I would only add that listening to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson sing "Ich habe genug" reminds me vividly of listening to Solesmes' aged Dom Gajard sing the part of Jesus in the Abbey's recording of the Good Friday liturgy. Both occasions are born of a transfixion that transcends music and its performance. An imposing spiritual source is immediately and irrevocably present, and seems increased after the musical experience itself. Fortunately for all of us, in this recording Lieberson teaches us the god Bach is and serves him with a miraculous art.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Exquisite
Comment: Will my written word be able to say what is in my heart? This CD is a stunning experience of the alchemy of Bach and voice. Lieberson is all about the expressiveness of the line and allows the grace and beauty of the music to float on her voice. I was moved to a sort of frozen bliss when I first listened to this, perhaps the most profound musical experience I have had for months. In our world of overproduced discs wringing reaction from our overtaxed attention, this quiet and amazing performance of these extraordinary cantatas is the balm to shattered nerves.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superlative Hunt Lieberson Brings Bach to Vivid Life
Comment: As she more recently proved with her "Handel Arias" CD, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is capable of such beautiful, dramatic singing that her performances feel intensely personal, not just recitative. Her burnished tone has only deepened over the years, and her interpretative skills continue to amaze. While she is a true Handelian, Hunt Lieberson proves here that she is equally at home ruminating in the Bach repertoire. Recorded at Boston's Emmanuel Church, this recording reflects the collaboration of longtime colleagues Hunt Lieberson, Emmanuel artistic director Craig Smith and avant-garde director Peter Sellars. One would think the listener is being robbed of the strong visual sense that inevitably comes with a Sellars production, but Hunt Lieberson is so masterful in conveying a wide range of emotion aurally that the stylized staging (discussed in the accompanying booklet) almost becomes a moot point. Definitely not authentic to the Baroque period, this disc overcomes this perceived lapse by making full use of Craig Smith's expert conducting of the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music. The musicians accompany beautifully with a warmth and richness in tone that comes from the perfect blending of strings and woodwinds with Peggy Pearson's playing of the obbligato oboe d'amore a particular standout.
From the somewhat religious lyrics, one would expect pieces that are more sermonic, but they feel much more like confessionals on the witness stand. In cantata BWV 82, "Ich habe genug", there is a dramatic intensity and immediacy that are theatrical in the best possible sense, filled with imaginative detail as she seems to be on suicide watch. I love how in the final aria, she conveys an unpredictable shifting back and forth between hopefulness and anguish that brings out the true meaning of the text. I was fortunate enough to see countertenor David Daniels perform this cantata last year with the San Francisco Symphony, and his is the only version comparable to hers. Cantata BWV 199, "Mein Herze schwimmt in blut", fully illustrates her dexterity in capturing all the dark moods with ease. The singer displays a welcome bit of humor in snarling the word 'Adamssamen' in the opening recitative to express her self-loathing. She shows a more subtle side in converting her singing to almost humming at the line 'Weil der Mund geschlossen ist', which means appropriately 'for my mouth is shut', in the aria "Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen". A stunning, affecting recording, performed with great sensitivity and maximum dramatic impact by the incomparable Hunt Lieberson.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Lorraine Hunt Lieberson has been scantily represented on CD, and that makes this gorgeous, deeply felt release all the more valuable. Here she sings two Bach cantatas composed for solo voice. Her mezzo is not particularly heavy, but it can darken or lighten expressively, and she uses its dusky qualities handsomely. Ich habe genug was originally written for solo bass, but Bach revised it a few years later. The way the voice works with and around a solo oboe (amid the accompanying strings) is beautiful. Of particular note are the aria "Schlummert ein"--a lullaby which Lieberson sings with a long, sustained, hushed tone--and the final aria, in which the singer looks forward to her death and eternal peace; the latter is remarkable for its joyful, flowery vocal line, as upbeat as the lullaby is serene. Lieberson catches the mood, and her rhythmic accuracy, leaning on the beat, brings out the joy in the singer's religious fervor. The second cantata, similarly scored with a prominent solo oboe, begins with a recitative ("My heart swims in blood") and is a confession of guilt; by its close the tone has again turned vivacious, as the sinner looks forward to salvation. Lieberson's voice is capable of level upon level of dynamics, her soft singing is as impressive as her more outgoing expressions. This is a beautiful disc from an important singer. --Robert Levine
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