Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Fabio Biondi, Ian Bostridge :: Ian Bostridge: Europa Galante - Fabio Biondi : J.S. Bach : Cantatas & Arias

STUNNING

MOVIE MAVEN | New York, NY USA | 03/11/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the perfect recording for anyone who already loves the vocal music of J.S. Bach or for anyone who feels that Bach's music is too mathematical and non-emotional. Ian Bostridge is, arguably, the most emotional of all "serious" singers today. He interprets everything he performs and brings his own insights to his performances, whether, for example, the music be written by Bach or another of the singer's obvious favorites, Benjamin Britten. The music on this album, usually sung by bass or soprano, sounds very right for tenor, esp. for Bostridge's light, almost unearthly, sound. He is beautifully accompanied by an ensemble called Europa Galante which also plays three of Bach's sinfonias for orchestra, without voice. This is a stunning album which I highly recommend."

A voice unsurpassed

Joan C. Temmerman MD | Evansville, IN | 10/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is stunning. I am a cellist, and I originally bought it for some of the Bach pieces that featured prominent instrumental parts, but from the start, I was spellbound. The first selection, BWV 82A, is one of the most beautiful works of Bach that I have ever heard. Ian Bostridge's voice is spellbinding. I am looking forward to hearing much more, especially his lieder CDs."

TOWARDS THE HEREAFTER

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 12/20/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is a very interesting and thoughtful essay accompanying this disc, by Michel Roubinet and quite superbly translated into genuine English by Hugh Graham. In it the author draws attention to some aspects of the pietist tradition of Lutheranism, in particular its strong emphasis on the worshipper as an individual, and even more particularly the recurring theme of death as the gateway to each individual's final fulfilment. This was the spirit of much of the poetry that Bach set in his cantatas, and it must have been to a great extent the particular strain of belief that underlay the transcendental musical inspiration of Bach himself. Bach knew love and he knew grief and he believed both to be God's dispensation. He knew his own talent, he believed that to be God's gift, and he worked to perfect it with an industry that would have been astonishing in someone who had far more perfecting to do. The spirit of his music is introspective, but it seems to me completely untouched by guilt or fear. Bach's talent, unlike Milton's, was not death to hide because for him death held no terrors.



A review of this recital in a Sunday newspaper was phrased in such extravagant terms of praise that I noted it as something to acquire. I am relieved to calculate that this review can only have been five years ago, so long does it seem that I have been failing to do anything about it, but the name of Ian Bostridge registered firmly with me, and I now own the disc with a good idea, obtained in the intervening period, of why the original reviewer was so impressed. Bostridge is not only highly accomplished, he has an exceptional voice in the first place. It is what I think of as a `true' tenor, as opposed to the `mezzo-tenor' timbre of Schreier or Padmore. In spite of this Bostridge has a quite remarkable low register, something that he needs frequently in Bach and nowhere more on this disc than in Ich Habe Genug, where he adapts the soprano version and shows his self-assurance by leading off with it. There is more than an hour's music here, it is all music of much the same type, but between composer and interpreters the experience was over in no time. Bostridge seems to me to hit the right expression in every piece without exception, and he is admirably offset by the Europa Galante group, not just the instrumentalists but also the three singers who perform the final chorale in Ich Armer Mensch.



In addition to the arias, recitatives and the one chorus, there are three short instrumental numbers, the disc being rounded off with a sinfonia from the Peasant Cantata, providing an unexpected and pleasant contrast to the unrelieved devoutness of the rest of it. The recorded tone is admirable, and the liner-note is of real value. Apart from anything else, the translation by Hugh Graham puts his fellow practitioners to shame. If you read the note in English without realising it is a translation, as I did, you would never know, or at least I never suspected.



I suppose it is slightly unusual for a young artist to introduce himself with an exhibition disc consisting entirely of music that is not only great but deeply serious and even solemn as well. However one of the most extraordinary things about Bach is just how strong his appeal has always been and always looks like being. The technical difficulty of his music that once seemed formidable seems so no longer, and in some ways he is easier to interpret successfully than most composers of similar stature. That does not detract in the slightest from what Bostridge has achieved here, and I would suggest that admirers of both great music and great singing would do well to be less dilatory about obtaining this disc than I was."