Johann Sebastian Bach: Secular Cantatas

Johann Sebastian Bach: Secular Cantatas

HC23011 (Hänssler Classic, CD, 8 discs)

REISSUE (7 July 2023)

Playing time: 47'31"/59'31"/48'42"/78'47"/57'09"/57'52"/72'05"/55'35" - TT 477'12"
Tracks: 15 + 20 + 16 + 26 + 21 + 20 + 37 + 18
Booklet pages: 28
℗ 2023 Profil Medien GmbH
© 2023 Profil Medien GmbH
Main country of recording: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Johann Sebastian Bach: Secular Cantatas published on 15 August 2023

Gächinger Kantorei
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart
Helmuth Rilling, conductor

A re-release of Helmuth Rilling's critically accalaimed recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's Secular Cantatas. Recordings from 1994-2000, part of the project The Complete Bach on 172 CDs. Hänssler Classic is proud to present Helmuth Rilling's landmark recording of the Secular Cantatas (Weltliche Kantaten) in a new collector's edition. Rilling was the first conductor to ever record the complete Bach cantatas and still, twenty-five years after they were first released in celebration of the Bach tercentennial in 1985, they remain the standard by which all other interpretations are judged. This box set includes timeless performances featuring many of Europe's finest singers at the height of their careers. Helmuth Rilling, born in 1933 in Stuttgart, is acclaimed worldwide as a conductor, pedagogue, and Bach scholar. In 1954, he founded the internationally recognized Gächinger Kantorei choir, which joined forces with the Bach Collegium Stuttgart as its regular orchestral partner eleven years later. It was at this time that Helmuth Rilling began his intensive work with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has both fervently advocated neglected choral music of the Romantic period and promoted contemporary music by regularly commissioning and performing pieces by key composers of our time. He has toured across Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia and South America, either as guest conductor or with his own ensembles. Rilling has collaborated with some of the world's first-class orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Japanese NHK Symphony Orchestra.