Sigiswald Kuijken and
La Petite Bande continue their survey of
Bach's church cantatas with this disc of four cantatas written for the advent season: Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36; Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV 132; and both versions of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 and 62. As always in this series, lucidity is the watchword. In addition to a tiny chamber orchestra of 10 players, the choral parts are taken by the four vocal soloists so everything at all times can be heard with absolute clarity. But beyond lucidity,
Kuijken and his forces are also as concerned with expressivity. Not only do the vocalists wring the emotional meaning out of the works' sacred texts, but the instrumentalists bring the musical meaning out of each phrase so that everything here is extremely articulate. Those who prefer their
Bach performed by large-scale forces and given more a generic aesthetic meaning may want to stick to
Karl Richter's venerable recordings. But those who want to get the most out of the works may well prefer
Kuijken's recordings, particularly in Accent's rich, warm digital sound.