J S Bach: Motets
Recorded live in London, St John’s Smith Square, 2011
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2012, Choral & Song Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2012, Disc of the Month
-
Gramophone Awards, 2013, Winner - Baroque Vocal
the Monteverdi Choir can turn from Rottweiler into lamb in the blink of an eye...Some might fine Gardiner's approach theatrical; he could persuasively counter that the motets engage unflinchingly...
J S Bach: Motets
Recorded live in London, St John’s Smith Square, 2011
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Purchase product
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, August 2012, Choral & Song Choice
-
Gramophone Magazine, August 2012, Disc of the Month
-
Gramophone Awards, 2013, Winner - Baroque Vocal
the Monteverdi Choir can turn from Rottweiler into lamb in the blink of an eye...Some might fine Gardiner's approach theatrical; he could persuasively counter that the motets engage unflinchingly...
About
Thirty years on from their acclaimed recording for Erato, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir return to the Bach Motets in a new SDG recording, taken from a concert in London last year at the end of a tour which saw performances in Italy, France, The Netherlands and Germany.
The Motets can be seen as some of Bach’s most perfect and hypnotic compositions. Through their extraordinary complexity and density, they require exceptional virtuosity and sensitivity of all the performers.
Each of them is endlessly fascinating, and each inhabits its own sound world, Bach's masterful use of canon, fugue and counterpoint, the brilliant exploitation of double-choir sonorities are perfectly matched by the Monteverdi Choir's virtuosity.
The album is packaged in a hard back book similar to our other releases. It contains 44 pages booklet with original notes by John Eliot Gardiner and texts in German, English and French.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
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BBC Music MagazineAugust 2012Choral & Song Choice
-
Gramophone MagazineAugust 2012Disc of the Month
August 2012
the Monteverdi Choir can turn from Rottweiler into lamb in the blink of an eye...Some might fine Gardiner's approach theatrical; he could persuasively counter that the motets engage unflinchingly with matters of life and death...Gardiner trusts Bach's simplicity and inwardness as much as he relishes his complexity and drama.
August 2012
Delicacy and precision characterise the choral singing in every track. The balance between the voice groups allows every detail of the counterpoint to shine through...The singers give a real questing quality to all the counterpoint, as if they are exploring these intricate textures for the first time. Their approach to the homophonic textures is just as sophisticated.
6th May 2012
performances of surpassing beauty and irresistible dancing energy.
4th May 2012
Utterly sublime.