Netherlands Bach Society

Jos van Veldhoven - conductor

The Netherlands Bach Society Jos van Veldhoven - conductor

All the music on this CD is associated with the festival of Christmas. Bach wrote the cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (BWV 110) for morning service on Christmas Day 1725, and the first version of the Magnificat in E flat major (BWV 243a) for Vespers on Christmas Day 1723, seven months after the Leipzig town council appointed him cantor of the Thomaskirche. It would hardly be exaggerating to say that Bach thus presented his visiting card to his new employer. According to the Bach scholar Christoph Wolff, the work is his "first really large-scale and complex piece of church music". Christmas was not the only occasion to sing the Magnificat text, however, for it was also a standard part of the Vespers liturgy. This may explain why Bach made a second version some years later (in D major, BWV 243). 
For a Christmas CD in the year 2010 it is obviously attractive to add new movements to Bach's Magnificat, entirely in keeping with the tradition of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His own choice, in the E flat major version, remains unsurpassed. By adding extra Christmas music to the second version in D major, however, a new and unexpected form arises which lends the performance a certain topicality. What is more, it gives us the opportunity to present Bach with several Netherlands composers of the seventeenth century.

Jos van Veldhoven

 Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (BWV 110)
soprano 1, alto, tenor, bass
1 Unser Mund sei voll Lachens 6.32
2 Ihr Gedanken und ihr Sinnen 4.00
3 Dir, Herr, ist niemand gleich 0.33
4 Ach Herr, was ist ein Menschenkind 4.59
5 Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe 3.23
6 Wacht auf, ihr Adern und ihr Glieder 3.59
7 Alleluja! Gelobt sei Gott 0.47

Magnificat in D major (BWV 243)
soprano 1 and 2, alto, tenor, bass
8 Magnificat anima mea Dominum 2.57
9 Et exsultavit spiritus meus 2.15
10 Hoe schoon lichtet de morghen ster (1) 1.48
11 Quia respexit humilitatem 2.55
12 Omnes generationes 1.16
13 Quia fecit mihi magna 1.59
14 Currite, pastores (2) 4.16
15 Et misericordia 3.36
16 Fecit potentiam 1.50
17 O Jesulein, mein Jesulein (3) 2.37
18 Deposuit potentes 2.00
19 Esurientes implevit bonis 2.48
20 Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe (4) 3.28
21 Suscepit Israel 2.13
22 Sicut locotus est 1.36
23 Gloria Patri 2.17

'Einlagen' in Magnificat:
(1) Dirck Janszoon Sweelinck (1591-1652)
(2) Jan Baptist Verrijt (1600-1650)
(3) Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630)
(4) Johann Michael Bach (1648-1694)



(...) The performances are absolutely first-rate...It's all there: the majesty, the mystery, the joy.(...)
Fanfare

(...) The Dutch group that Jos van Veldhoven directs delivers a musical message of pristine beauty. And in the two works the solo parts transport us as fully as does the direction, with Dorothee Mields (soprano), Johannete Zomer (soprano), William towers (alto), Charles Daniels (tenor), Stephan MacLoed (bass). This is a great accomplishment, in an exemplary sound recording that respects tones and acoustics.
Opus Haute Définition

(...) het is plezierig om de Bach Vereniging met Bachs cantate-oeuvre bezig te horen (...) Mooie stem van de countertenor Willian Tower.
Luister

(…) This is terrific Bach singing and playing, and even if you already own one or two or three Magnificats, you won't be sorry to add this one--so vibrant and fresh-sounding, and possessed of the hopeful, optimistic spirit of the texts and music. And the sound, well, Channel Classics has a lock on whatever combination of technical know-how and magic is involved in making consistently demonstration-quality recordings. Don't hesitate to include this in your holiday-season acquisitions. Highly recommended.
Classics Today

 (…) Een en al blijdschap in de stralende opening met het Magnificat anima mea Dominum (…) Een hele bijzondere cd.
Gereformeerd Dagblad

(…) de vocale en instrumentale articulatie is op alle fronten op topniveau en trekt het authentieke ensemble slechts zelden een wissel op de technische afwerking (…)
(…) het bijna etherische 'Esurientes implevit bonus' van de altus William Towes is dan weer ware balsem voor de ziel. De bijdragen van de solisten en het koor in de cantate en het Magnificat zijn verder ronduit exemplair. Men proeve voorts alleen maar de sopraan Dorothee Mields in het 'Quia respexit humilitatem' van het Magnificat en de bas Stephan MacLeod in 'Wachet auf, ihr Adern und ihr Glieder' in de cantate, met de sublieme trompetbegeleiding van Robert Vanryne. De opname (december 2009, concertzaal in Tilburg) is al evenmin gering: brandschoon, transparant maar kernachtig, met een mooie bas als toegift.
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