Are these the best, the deepest, the profoundest -- in a word, the greatest -- recordings of these four Bach cantatas ever made? What a silly question! Indeed, what an utterly beside-the-point question and surely a question that neither the conductor, the performers, or even the composer would ever have thought to ask. The real question is: are these recordings musically, emotionally, and spiritually honest recordings, that is, do they capture the true essence of the works? And the answer to that question is a grateful "yes." While
John Eliot Gardiner has not always been ideally matched with the repertoire he's recorded -- does anyone recall his Janácek Sinfonetta or
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances? -- he has always been ideally suited to the music of the Baroque -- who cannot recall his Monteverdi Vespers or his Handel Messiah? -- and his series of Bach cantatas has been as good as the best things he's ever recorded. In these performances with the
Monteverdi Choir and the
English Baroque Soloists recorded in New York on Christmas 2000,
Gardiner has created recordings that may or may not be in the same league with
Richter,
Harnoncourt,
Leonhardt, or
Koopman but that are certainly absolutely musically, emotionally, and spiritually as one with the works. The beauty of the melodies, the clarity of the part writing, the rightness of the harmonies, the lightness of the rhythms, the color of the scoring? All are as one with the music. The joy, the sorrow, the exaltation, the anguish, the excitement? All are as one with the texts. The awe, the dread, the glory, the wonder, the bliss? All are as one with Bach's fusion of music and texts. Are these then the best recordings of these four Bach cantatas ever made? Does it really matter? Anyone who loves these cantatas will love this disc.