# Favourite Cantata?



## Morigan (Oct 16, 2006)

Since the "What's your favourite..." threads seem to be popular, I thought I'd ask about cantatas.

I'm trying to get into Bach cantatas, notably, and I'd like to know your favourites (by any composer).


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

Never heard one, but I'd like a 'What is your Favourite "What is you Favourite..." Thread?'


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

opus67 said:


> Never heard one, but I'd like a 'What is your Favourite "What is you Favourite..." Thread?'


We now (rightly) return to our regularly scheduled topic:

It's time for me to infest this thread with sacrilege. My favorite cantata is *Carmina Burana* (per its composer, Carl Orff, a "secular scenic cantata"). Nietzche supposedly averred that _Tristan und Isolde_ helped him through adolescence. Well, there are a few of us out there for whom _Carmina Burana_ played a similar role.


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## Guest (May 24, 2007)

I only know one - the Peasant's Cantata which I learn't when I was at school in the 60s


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## Amade Van Haydn (May 12, 2007)

Morigan said:


> Since the "What's your favourite..." threads seem to be popular, I thought I'd ask about cantatas.
> 
> I'm trying to get into Bach cantatas, notably, and I'd like to know your favourites (by any composer).


Hi Morigan,

now at the moment I'm hearing a CD with Bach's Whitsun Cantatas. Great works! - especially BWV 172 "Erschallet ihr Lieder" and BWV 34 "O ewiges Feuer".
There are so much very good cantatas composed by J.S. Bach, I don't know what to recommend...
Perhaps you start with BWV 1 "Wie schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern" (very nice, too) and go on...
What are my favourits??
The early cantatas "Christ lag in Todesbanden" BWV 4 and "Aus der Tiefe rufe ich" BWV 131 are very impressive and show Bach's early maturity.
Dead serious are "Ich habe genug" BWV 82, "Lass, Fuerstin" BWV 198 and "Actus tragicus" BWV 106, somehow Bach's Requiem.
Very joyous are the cantatas for Advent and Christmas, like "Schwingt freudig" BWV 36 or "Christen, aetzet diesen Tag" 63.
Also very good "O Ewigkeit" BWV 20, "Wachet auf" BWV 140, .... I better stop now...

Perhaps I can give you more concrete help, if you can say me what you like to hear?

Regards,
AVH.


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## Morigan (Oct 16, 2006)

Thank you Amade, that's the kind of advice I was looking for. I'm going to look for your suggestions first and then see how I feel after.


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## Amade Van Haydn (May 12, 2007)

Hi, Morigan!

Ah, I forgot "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" BWV 12, from where Bach took the "Cruzifixus"-melody for his b-minor-mass, and BWV 80 "Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott" for the reformation day and ... and ...
You will see, there are a lot of wonderful Bach church cantatas.
But the secular cantatas shouldn't be forgotten. Above these I like most "Schweigt stille" BWV 211 and "Toenet ihr Pauken" BWV 214.

Before you buy some CDs with Bach cantatas, you should check the following:

1.) Do you like HIP-recordings?
If not, you have a problem, because all newer and (IMO) all good recordings are HIP.
In this case perhaps you should try Scherchen recordings.

2.) Do you like countertenors?
If not, you should look on the back side of the CD if there sings a countertenor. IMO there are good ones which I like to hear as well as female contralto.
To be sure to avoid them, you can take old HIP-recordings like the ones of Richter or the Collegium Aureum.

3.) Do you like boy's choirs or treble soli?
I can't stand that, IMO this can perish the best recording... 
So avoid the Harnoncourt or Thomaner recordings!

My tip: Start with recordings of Gardiner (the older DGG Archiv as well as the new (better, but more expensive) SDG CDs) or Herreweghe (hmf).

Regards,
AVH.


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## Morigan (Oct 16, 2006)

Hi Amade!

Thanks for you help! I will answer your three questions:

1) I absolutely love period instrument recordings. I think Baroque sounds _much_ better this way.

2) I must be a rare specimen: countertenor is my favourite voice!! I think there's a little something missing when a contralto signs the part... but that's still better than transposing the melodic line to make it suit a tenor voice!

3) Ugh. I can't enjoy anything with a boys choir. (Ok, except maybe Mahler's 8th).

Anyway, I still haven't gotten started yet, since I'm working on Bach's complete Orgelwerk performed by Walcha (oh yes), but I think I'll start with Gardiner. I like him.


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## Guest (May 28, 2007)

Morigan said:


> Hi Amade!
> 
> I can't enjoy anything with a boys choir. (Ok, except maybe Mahler's 8th).


Have you ever tried the "St Matthew passion" directed by Gustav Leonhardt, with no women, but with Rene Jacobs and a boys choir "die Tolzer Knabenchor"?


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## Handel (Apr 18, 2007)

Argh. Tough choice. But good thread.

I like a lot Bach's _Magnificat_. _Christen, ätzet diesen_ Tag too.

But those I like the most were composed, without suprises, by Handel:

Apollo e Daphne
Dixit Dominus
La Lucrezia


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## Rod Corkin (Jun 1, 2007)

Can't really get into Bach's sound myself, too corporate. I could add in addition to the Handel pieces to mention 'Clori, Tirsi e fileno' a wealth of gems in that one. Look out for the projected collection of Handel 'canate per il cardinal Pamphili' releases on the Glossa label, second one is due for release very soon. First one was very interesting indeed, with a ravishing instrumental sound.


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2007)

Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution.

It's got bandoneon's in it; how can it go wrong? Plus a heartstring pulling chorus on the word "philosophy"? Well, it's a sweet piece, and getting better and better known, thanks to digital technology.


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## billeames (Jan 17, 2014)

Bach BMV 79. Thanks. 

Bill


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## TumultuousHair (Mar 13, 2016)

My favorite cantatas so far have been Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, Orff's Carmina Burana, Bartok's Cantata Profane, and Webern's Second Cantata. I've also liked what I've heard from Buxtehude.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

This topic wasn't used for more then 8 years


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Pugg said:


> This topic wasn't used for more then 8 years


... and it's all your fault.


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## bestellen (May 28, 2015)

I agree with you about Cantata 140. I especially love the opening chorus--it's amazing how he managed to write music that is so strong and stirring, and yet so utterly spiritual as well. And the long, fugue-like passage at the end, which he writes for the word "Alleluja" is magnificent.

Other favorites of mine include:

Cantata 80 ("Ein feste Burg")
Cantata 104 ("Actus Tragicus")
Cantata 4 ("Christ lag in Todesbaden")

I'm convinced that everything Bach wrote was intended for "The Glory of God"--and this includes all of his "secular" instrumental music as well as his Church music.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Are Stabat maters and Te deums cantatas? What is a cantata, anyway? A large scale vocal work that is not an opera, a mass or a requiem?

Some symphonies are also practically cantatas. I'm thinking of Mendelssohn 2, Shostakovich 13 and 14.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Cantata No. 51 BWV 51. Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen.

A virtuoso showpiece for coloratura soprano.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

​*Dame Joan Sutherland* sings Bach, Bereite dir from Cantata no.147
London, 1958


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Recently I discovered Debussy's _L'Enfant Prodigue_ for myself. I loved it. I couldn't understand a word of the French, but I have a vocal score (from IMSLP) with an English translation. I was born 150 years too late!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

QuietGuy said:


> Recently I discovered Debussy's _L'Enfant Prodigue_ for myself. I loved it. I couldn't understand a word of the French, but I have a vocal score (from IMSLP) with an English translation. I was born 150 years too late!


But then again: if you're born earlier, no internet, no Classic forum .:lol:


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

For me it's Bartók's Cantata Profana - The Giant Stags:

… Their slender bodies
Ne'er in clothes can wander
Only wear the wind and sun,
Their dainty legs
Can never stand the hearthstone,
Only tread the leafy mold;
Their mouths no longer
Drink from crystal glasses,
Only from pure mountain springs.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Glad this got resurrected.

I know little about cantatas but would be interested in expanding my library. The few that I know of that I enjoy:

*Bach - BWV 54, Widerstehe doch der Sünde* - For the first movement alone, gorgeous
*Bach - BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme* - I know this one is really popular, and I'm sure people here who are familiar with the rest of Bach's cantatas are probably shaking their heads like "...there are so many better ones", not that this one is bad, but that it's so popular it probably overshadows a lot of hidden gems. Anyway I like it.
*Mendelssohn - Die erste Walpurgisnacht* - Fantastic, dramatic, great choral and orchestral writing. Fulfills all of the checkmarks you'd find in a Romantic work: fighting against oppression, revering nature and paganism[in the sense of being one with nature's spirit], awesome orchestra moments, great chorals and solos.
*Bartok - Cantata Profana* - Glad Casebearer brought this one up, because this also has fantastic moments in the orchestral writing.


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## Renzo (Jan 15, 2017)

Morigan said:


> Since the "What's your favourite..." threads seem to be popular, I thought I'd ask about cantatas.
> 
> I'm trying to get into Bach cantatas, notably, and I'd like to know your favourites (by any composer).


I'm familiar with just two of Bach's Cantatas and I like them both:

Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? BWV 8 
and BWV 82 which contains "Ich Habe Genug"

I've heard the latter selection sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. It is currently my favorite.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Since I'm addicted to strong black coffee, my choice should be obvious.

This choice is in addition to my selection above made while I was still a youth.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Bach's Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38. Such a moving portrayal of anguish and hope! 

Its harmonic language is quite rich and expressive...lots of chromaticism and modal chord progressions. It's interesting to hear how Bach responded harmonically to the modal chorale melody on which this cantata is based.


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