Thomas Quasthoff.(recital)(Sound Recording Review)

Thomas Quasthoff

"BACH CANTATAS" Berlin Baroque Soloists, Fussmaul. Texts and translations. Deutsche Grammophon B0003458-02

A new recording from Deutsche Grammophon of the three sacred cantatas for solo bass or baritone by J. S. Bach features Thomas Quasthoff and the Berlin Baroque Soloists. The ensemble, which plays modern instruments that have been adjusted somewhat to reflect period performance practice, is a good match for the bass-baritone, who uses standard vocal techniques informed by historical style. In addition, Quasthoff's musical mastery and spiritual attunement are well-suited to this repertoire.

Like many of Bach's cantatas, these three express the human longing for redemption and for an end to suffering through death. In the opening of cantata 56, Ich Will Den Kreuzstab Gerne Tragen, the voice resolutely vows to bear the cross of troubles that leads to the promised land, even as Bach's underlying accompaniment of heaviness and ponderous movement reveals the difficulty of that very task. Quasthoff's way of letting the low passages sound low and the high phrases sound almost tenor-ish further emphasizes the effortful reality, of the journey. In the aria of anticipation, "Endlich wird mein Joch" (At last I shall be relieved of my yoke), Quasthoff makes a special moment of the phrase "O gescheh es heute noch!" (Oh, let it be today!) with soft, hopeful ...