JS Bach: Cantatas Vol 49 – review

While John Eliot Gardiner's great Bach Pilgrimage in 27 two-disc volumes has been honoured by a special Gramophone award , Masaaki Suzuki's more protracted cycle (on one CD at a time) continues, reaching Vol 49 with four wonderful cantatas from 1728-29. These are all compact works using music that became familiar: the D minor harpsichord concerto (here for organ), and the chorus that became the Patrem omnipotentem of the late B minor mass. Performances are maybe cool but very committed, and one track has a hypnotic allure: Gerd Türk's tenor aria "Herr, so weit die Wolken gehen" from BWV 171, with two perfectly duetting violins.