While we eagerly await the next instalment of two concurrent series of new cantata recordings – from Koopman and Suzuki – the Bach year has also given cause to reincarnate the pioneering sets of Rilling and Harnoncourt/ Leonhardt. In the midst of these major editions comes a beast of rather different spots from Brilliant Classics, a record company who, through licensing and creative plundering of old catalogues, is contriving its own Bach Edition. Rather more surprising is that within this patchwork of miscellaneous performances comes a brand new set of the complete cantatas. How on earth can such a project be viable as a realistic competitor to the meticulously prepared work of leading exponents, or even prudent financially? The answer lies in the spirit of the task, one clearly designed to provide a large audience with the opportunity to experience all these masterworks on period instruments, at an affordable price. A ridiculous price actually. The practice of speed-recording (most of the 40 CDs in front of me were taped between September and December 1999) represents quite an art in itself, attempting to engender inspiration while also ensuring acceptable standards of performance and recording – all within an intensive low-budget schedule. Unsurprisingly then, Pieter Jan Leusink’s standard-sized Holland Boys Choir and Netherlands Bach Collegium deliver a rather uneven collection of performances with highs and lows in close proximity. Some readings (of what appear to be randomly presented cantatas) are simply too indistinct to warrant comparison with more considered and glamorous competition, doubtless in those cases where not enough time has been allowed for the performers to find their interpretative feet beyond merely ‘getting it together’. Some, like that of the ‘Trauer Ode’, miss the point with overt force dispatching fragrant delicacy, whilst a healthy number constitute refreshing accounts disarmingly caught at the point of discovery. You take the rough with the smooth in this roller-coaster enterprise.
If there is one overriding Achilles heel, it is the unreliability of the solo singing. The tenor contributions, in particular, too often undermine Leusink’s generally bright and well-judged conceptions. Volume 5 is a case in point, where Knut Schoch, in the solo tenor cantata, No 55, is simply not up to the task. Judging by the qualities the less ubiquitous Marcel Beekman demonstrates in a beautifully executed No 164, he would have been a better first choice throughout. The most seasoned of the tenors, Nico van der Meel, becomes more authoritative as the set progresses (though he sings the enchanting ‘Ich habe meine Zuversicht’, No 188, memorably in Vol 2). Soprano Marjon Strijk often finds Bach’s taxing melisma a squiggle too far, in marked contrast to the expert if somewhat recessed singing of Ruth Holton and the excellent bass contributions of Bas Ramselaar (they also combine well in their many duets, such as the rollicking No 49). Whilst Holton may suffer from the current prejudice against any soprano remotely resembling a boy, she is a singer whose intelligence is more than compensation, as she shows in the limpid ‘Susser Trost’ of No 151, the graceful No 132 and solo soprano cantata No 84, which also reveals the sensitive oboe-playing of Peter Frankenberg – one of the stars of the series. Ramselaar is the best singer on the set and would, for the most part, grace any of the current series; he has the grainy intimacy of Klaus Mertens, and also a burly resonance when it suits him. His reading of ‘Ich will den Kreuzstab’, No 56, is a commendable achievement by any standards, and there are fine arias in the splendid Ascension works, Nos 37 and 128, as well as in 36, 100 and 108.
Further on the credit side, the boy-led choruses can irradiate a compellingly sure-footed and unmannered perspective of Bach, as in Nos 33 and 97 and in the refreshing and unselfconscious clarity of intent sweetly imparted in Nos 94, 6 and 117; the chorales are also luminously immediate and affecting.
Other cantatas are rather down-played, such as Nos 139 and 62, but are still worthy and enjoyable as honest performances in an unpretentious Kappellmeister mould. If there is a shortage of refinement and blend in No 133 or spit and polish in the rhythmically exacting Nos 26 and 33, bright and energetic declamation is agreeably more the rule than the exception in Leusink’s no-airs-and-graces approach. In the general firmament of new cantata recordings (from the likes of Herreweghe, Coin, Suzuki, Gardiner and Koopman), these spontaneous performances stand comparison more in terms of individual movements (many, including several mentioned above, of real conviction and distinction) than complete pieces. Of the handful of cantatas where a special vision of the whole work is unanimously conveyed, with the performers firing on all cylinders, one should highlight (in no particular order) Nos 57, 87, 33, 42, 192, 45, 88, 176, 125 and 129. If the choral movements are the best things in these sets, there are still some memorable arias (to counter an abundance of ropey ones) with which Volumes 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 are particularly well-endowed.
In sum, these readings deserve to be recognised, primarily for their attractive and well-measured strides (occasionally, as in No 199, Leusink is just too broad), but also for a lack of dogma or self-importance. Hard-driven and intermittently rough in places (especially string intonation), they are nevertheless consistently honest, rarely disastrous, and occasionally illuminating statements. All the instrumental sinfonias, incidentally, are beautifully conceived. As to the price (which is too embarrassingly slight to utter for such music), value for money is not the point at issue. A unique collection, especially suitable for those who cannot quite bring themselves to shell out substantial sums for the new Erato and BIS versions. Texts in German only.'