# Bach Motets



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I've been listening a lot to Bach's motets from Suzuki on BIS and enjoying it greatly. Are there any other recordings of these works that you would highly recommend?


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## Guest (Sep 16, 2019)

Do you know about this excellent project? Have a wander through their catalogue of performed works by Bach so far and see if there's anything more on the motets:

https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach

Bach isn't 'easy' - he's not for everybody - but when you do get Bach there are _few_ musical experiences which are as transcendent. I would put into that category the final piano sonatas by Beethoven.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Bulldog said:


> I've been listening a lot to Bach's motets from Suzuki on BIS and enjoying it greatly. Are there any other recordings of these works that you would highly recommend?


I haven't heard the Suzuki yet, but I do recommend Rene Jacobs on Harmonia Mundi.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Christabel said:


> Do you know about this excellent project? Have a wander through their catalogue of performed works by Bach so far and see if there's anything more on the motets:
> 
> https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach
> 
> Bach isn't 'easy' - he's not for everybody - but when you do get Bach there are _few_ musical experiences which are as transcendent. I would put into that category the final piano sonatas by Beethoven.


Bach's been my favorite composer for decades, but I've never done a thorough dig into motet recordings.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

wkasimer said:


> I haven't heard the Suzuki yet, but I do recommend Rene Jacobs on Harmonia Mundi.


Loving both Jacob's Bach and the composer, this should be a winner. Thanks!


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

Bulldog said:


> I've been listening a lot to Bach's motets from Suzuki on BIS and enjoying it greatly. Are there any other recordings of these works that you would highly recommend?


*Gardiner's Erato recordings have been re-released in a budget packaging. I love them.









Helmut Rilling's Hanssler recording is also terrific:









M. Creed on Harmonia Mundi - good one.









If you want a HUGE choir get Schneidt - but fast it's out of print:*

https://www.amazon.com/Motets-Johan...idt+bach+motets&qid=1568670610&s=music&sr=1-1


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Any opinions on Harnoncourt? I've had this for a long time, and I've stopped looking after I heard it.


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2019)

Bulldog said:


> Bach's been my favorite composer for decades, but I've never done a thorough dig into motet recordings.


Yes, we're all spoilt for choice when it comes to JSB.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> I've been listening a lot to Bach's motets from Suzuki on BIS and enjoying it greatly. Are there any other recordings of these works that you would highly recommend?


The last time I listened to this music seriously was 2009. I remember going to a series of three Christmas Cantata concerts with Gardiner and each one included two motets too, I was so impressed by the music that I spent some time listening to recordings: it was just that the time when I started to use Spotify too!

Anyway my opinions may well be different now, but there were some that I remember really liking. The second Kuijken (it had just been released and I remember preferring it to the first Kuijken, but I can't remember why) , Dijkstra and Peter Kooij.


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## NLAdriaan (Feb 6, 2019)

Great that you picked up again these beautiful but less popular vocal works of Bach!

I actually always had the 1980 Harnoncourt recording on my shelve, from the early days of CD. But just recently I came across the 'new' 2011 Gardiner recording, issued on his own SDG label:








To my own surprise, I was absolutely delighted with this particular recording and it now stands next to Harnoncourt on my shelve. I must admit I generally don't like Gardiner at all in baroque music, especially in Bach. But with these Motetten, he hits the right spot for me. It is of course somewhat abstract choral music, a bit like the KDF, they are full of Fuga's, canons and contrapunt. The music is helped with a crystal clear choral interpretation with only little musical accompaniment and no festoon. After all, Motetten are funeral chants. And that is exactly what Gardiner gives us here. He actually makes Harnoncourt's recording sound a bit blurry.

So, as the exception to my own 'rule', I highly recommend Gardiners 2011 recording of the Motetten!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

With boys voices!


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

I like the Naxos recording a lot. It may be redundant if you have some of these other ones with more prestigious conductors and choirs.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

The Suzuki is actually my favorite, but there are a couple here that I intend to rehear/hear for the first time.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Thanks for all the recommendations! I've got lots of listening to do.


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2019)

I still fondly remember my first recording of the Motets










This recording is peculiar in that Harnoncourt chooses to double the voices with instruments, which he believed was standard practice in Bach's time.


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2019)

Thanks for the heads up on all these recordings, people!!


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Christabel said:


> Bach isn't 'easy' - he's not for everybody - but when you do get Bach there are _few_ musical experiences which are as transcendent. I would put into that category the final piano sonatas by Beethoven.


When it comes to "personal preference", just because other people don't admire the same thing as I do, I would not pretend that they "did not understand" it OR that it is only for "the elites".
It looks pretentious and snobbish. 
I don't care about "transcendence". I can't appreciate anything that reminds me of some modern stuff such as minimalism for example. And I don't necessarily think I lack "capacity to understand" when I can't appreciate something.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

hammeredklavier said:


> When it comes to "personal preference", just because other people don't admire the same thing as I do, I would not pretend that they "did not understand" it OR that it is only for "the elites".
> It looks pretentious and snobbish.
> I don't care about "transcendence". I can't appreciate anything that reminds me of some modern stuff such as minimalism for example. And I don't necessarily think I lack "capacity to understand" when I can't appreciate something.


But sometimes they don't appreciate it because they're too stupid or too lazy or too badly educated or too arrogant to make the effort.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

These make good listening too!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

hammeredklavier said:


> When it comes to "personal preference", just because other people don't admire the same thing as I do, I would not pretend that they "did not understand" it OR that it is only for "the elites".
> It looks pretentious and snobbish.
> I don't care about "transcendence". *I can't appreciate anything that reminds me of some modern stuff such as minimalism for example. *And I don't necessarily think I lack "capacity to understand" when I can't appreciate something.


I can't think of anything that reminds me less of the minimalism of today than Bach's glorious motets.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

DavidA said:


> I can't think of anything that reminds me less of the minimalism of today than Bach's glorious motets.


I wasn't saying Bach's motets remind me of minimalism


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ How did minimalism (of all things) enter this thread, then? Or why did you mention it?


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Aside from the earlier Gardiner, this has long been a favorite of mine:










Nice to hear mention of Helmuth Rilling, as I once performed two of the motets under his direction, _Jesu meine Freude _and _Singet dem Herrn_.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I go for the old Harnoncourt. I like the Jacobs and the Suzuki but it is the Harnoncourt that works best for me in this music.


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