BACH Cantatas: No. 144;1 No. 84;2 No. 92;3 No. 18;4 No. 181;5 No. 1266 • John Eliot Gardiner, cond; Miah Persson (sop);1,2,3 Gillian Keith (sop);4 Angharad Gruffydd Jones (sop);5 Wilke te Brummelstroete (alt);1,3 Robin Tyson (ct);5,6 James Oxley (ten);1,3 James Gilchrist (ten);4,5,6 Jonathan Brown (bs);3 Stephan Loges (bs);4,5,6 Monteverdi Ch; English Baroque Soloists (period instruments) • SOLI DEO GLORIA 153 (2 CDs: 95:25 Text and Translation)

Gardiner’s Volume 20 of his Cantata Pilgrimage addresses the Septuagesima and Sexagesima, the third and second Sundays before Lent, respectively. Since no cantatas were sung during Lent, Bach usually tried to give his parishioners something in this pre-Lenten period to tide them over until the Passion performance on Good Friday. And certainly there’s nothing routine about these six cantatas. Cantata 84 (labeled “cantata” on the score, unusual for Bach) is a solo work, but the chorus is prominent in Nos. 144 and 92. The Weimar cantata, BWV 18, is scored for four violas and continuo (with bassoon), but there are trumpets in Cantatas 181 and 126. By and large, these cantatas are up beat, appropriately for carnival time, but not without exhortations. In BWV 92, for example, the bass intones a chorale, but impetuously interrupts himself nine times with commentary. Jonathan Brown’s robust singing and that of tenor James Oxley, matched by Stephan Loges and James Gilchrist on the second disc, are among the many highlights of the set. Miah Persson, especially in Cantata 84, is splendid as well. The best marks, however, go to the choir, which responds smartly to Gardiner’s zealous intensity. If this set has a weakness, I would cite the inconsistent contributions of the oboe soloist, but overall, this is among the more rewarding volumes in the Pilgrimage series.

FANFARE: George Chien