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Brilliant Classics have released a Complete set of Bach's Sacred Cantatas, it is available on jpc.de for €44.99.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/ ... um/1896932

Kantaten BWV 1-10, 12-14, 16-52, 54-117, 119-140, 143-159, 161-188, 192, 194-199

Artist: Ruth Holton, Nico van der Meel, Knut Schoch, Marjon Strijk, Syste Buwalda, Marcel Beekman, Hollands Boy Choir, Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusin

Are you familiar with these performances? If you are what do you make of them?

They are not of the quality of Gardiner, Herreweghe or Susuki but if you are looking for an alternative collection then they will do the job Seán.

fergus wrote:They are not of the quality of Gardiner, Herreweghe or Susuki but if you are looking for an alternative collection then they will do the job Seán.

Thanks Fergus. To be honest I am not looking for average performances of Bach's Cantatas I would prefer to listen to the Gardiner & Herreweghe instead. I was curious to see what Bach lovers thought of the recordings in this complete set and if was up there with the best of them, I had a feeling they wouldn't be.

They are by no means bad Seán and have things to offer but, as you say, are not quite at the top table.

Here is a review http://www.musicweb-international.com/c ... ntBach.htm

"...
The cantatas were initially panned by critics outside of the Netherlands, and some within, on their release. Of course, one just naturally assumes that such a quick recording schedule must lead to poor-quality work. In fact, I remember when I first heard about the set, on the Internet, and people were basically dismissing it as second-rate. But as time went on, more people discovered this set and found it to be not so bad; in fact, it really is quite good. Naturally, it has its weaknesses, but these weaknesses are no more apparent than in the other two complete sets, those by Rilling and Leonhardt/Harnoncourt. The former can be criticized for his hybrid approach between baroque music and modern forces and instruments; the latter is often criticized for the choice of boys to sing all the solo voices, leading to some very poor performances by boys whose voices are not up to the emotional intensity of the music.


But Leusink is not as dogmatic as Leonhardt/Harnoncourt, nor is he as free in his choices as Rilling. He manages to maintain a rare level of emotion and energy throughout the almost 200 cantatas; he used basically the same musicians, choir and soloists for each cantata. On the other hand, Leonhardt and Harnoncourt were unable to do so, because it took them nearly 20 years to record their set. While Leusink's cantatas may have some weaknesses due to the way they were recorded - they were not recorded in their entirety, for reasons of time; on certain days, only choral movements were recorded, on others arias, in order to not have the musicians sit around doing nothing. So, not one of the cantatas was actually performed completely for this set. There are occasional cantatas where this seems evident, where there is a lack of coherence among the different movements. Nevertheless, listening to the entire set, rather than focusing on individual cantatas, one is truly amazed by the quality of the music.
..."

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/c ... z2KDpKcQVI

That is interesting James; thank you for that.

James, thanks for doing that. I usually do read the reviews on Musicweb but did not do so on this occasion, I will stick with Gardiner for now.