Bach Collegium Japan | |
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Also known as | BCJ |
Origin | Japan |
Years active | 1990 | -present
Website | bachcollegiumjapan |
Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ) is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specializing in Baroque music, playing on period instruments. It was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque music. Suzuki still remains its music director. The ensemble has recorded all of Bach’s cantatas, a project that extended from 1995 to 2018 and accounts for over half of its discography.
The ensemble was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki who is still its music director [1] [2] Since then, they have become sought-after performers, [3] collaborating with European artists such as Max von Egmond, Nancy Argenta, Christoph Prégardien, Peter Kooy, Hana Blažíková, Monika Frimmer, Michael Chance, Kai Wessel, Gerd Türk, Michael Schopper and Concerto Palatino. [1]
They have toured Asia, Europe and North America, with many performances as cultural festivals such as Edinburgh Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Festival Internacional Cervantino [4] the Bach Festival in Leipzig, the Oregon Bach Festival and the Boston Early Music Festival. [4] [5]
Five years after the Collegium was founded, they began a project to record all the Bach cantatas, finishing in 2013. [4] [6] Working with Swedish record label BIS, [2] [7] the work was performed at a Christian chapel at Kobe University, one of the few Christian churches in the country large enough to properly perform such works. [7] These recordings account for over half of the ensemble’s 99-album discography. [8]
The Collegium is based in Tokyo and Kobe, with the aim of introducing Japanese audiences to Baroque music on period instruments. [1] It consists of a Baroque orchestra and chorus with about twenty voices and about 25 instrumentalists at any given performance. [9] Unlike most Japanese orchestras, it has some female section-leaders, and it draws on a hand-picked group of European instrumentalists. The vocal soloists are also a mix of Japanese and foreign, Suzuki's argument being that if the Collegium employed only Europeans, there would be little to distinguish it from other period ensembles. [7]
Masaaki Suzuki (b. 1954) [2] founded the collegium after being invited to inaugurate a hall in Osaka, bringing together two ensembles already under his direction. [7] Suzuki is a pioneer of early-music performance in East Asia and an international Bach authority. [2] He graduated Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and later attended the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, studying under Piet Kee and Ton Koopman. [7] [9]
The focus of the ensemble, for which they are noted, is the works of Bach and those Protestant German composers that influenced him such as Dietrich Buxtehude, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein and Georg Böhm. [1] [5] [9] Best known for their performances of Bach’s Cantatas, they have also performed his Passions, as well as Handel’s Messiah and Monteverdi's Vespers . Most of these works are for a full chorus, but it also presents smaller programs for soloists and small vocal groups. [1]
Alex Ross identifies Suzuki’s approach to Bach’s music as falling between two extremes, that of large ensembles (now regarded as old-fashioned in this repertoire), and on the other hand that of purists with one voice per part. According to Ross, Suzuki's interpretations tend towards subtlety rather than flamboyance avoiding "abrupt accents, florid ornaments, and freewheeling tempos that are fashionable in Baroque performance practice". [2] Ross praises Suzuki's clarity and musicality but suggests that at times the performances can seem to lack force. The BBC reviewed a 2013 release in the cantata series as "Fluently stylish and idiomatic, the performers live and breathe Bach's music with as much immediacy as if it had been composed yesterday". [6]
Concertmaster (violin, viola and viola d'amore): Ryo Terakado [1]
Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also an artist-in-residence at Yale University and the principal guest conductor of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe, BWV 25 in Leipzig for the 14th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 29 August 1723.
Robin Blaze is an English countertenor.
Herr, wie du willt, so schicks mit mir, BWV 73, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it for the third Sunday after Epiphany and first performed it in Leipzig on 23 January 1724. It was probably composed shortly before the first performance.
Peter Kooij is a Dutch bass singer who specializes in baroque music.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62, in Leipzig for the first Sunday in Advent and first performed it on 3 December 1724. The chorale cantata is based on Martin Luther's Advent hymn "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland". It is part of his chorale cantata cycle.
Patrick Van Goethem is a Belgian countertenor, known for performing early music.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Was frag ich nach der WeltBWV 94 in Leipzig for the ninth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 6 August 1724. It is a chorale cantata, based on the hymn by Balthasar Kindermann (1664) on a melody by Ahasverus Fritsch.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben, BWV 102 in Leipzig for the tenth Sunday after Trinity and it was first performed on 25 August 1726.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, BWV 179 in Leipzig for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 8 August 1723.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69a, also BWV 69.1, in Leipzig for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 15 August 1723. It is part of his first cantata cycle.
Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote the Christmas cantata in Leipzig in 1725 for the Second Day of Christmas, which was celebrated that year as St. Stephen's Day, and first performed it on 26 December 1725.
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote it in Leipzig for the New Year's Day and first performed it on 1 January 1724 as part of his first cantata cycle. He adapted it in 1730 to Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190a, for the celebration of the bicentennial of the Augsburg Confession.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden, BWV 47, in Leipzig for the 17th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 13 October 1726.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 98, in Leipzig for the 21st Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 10 November 1726.
Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister, BWV 181, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Sexagesima and first performed it on 13 February 1724.
Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, BWV 68, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, a church cantata for the second day of Pentecost. Bach composed the cantata in Leipzig and first performed it on 21 May 1725. It is one of nine cantatas on texts by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, which Bach composed at the end of his second annual cycle of cantatas in Leipzig. In a unique structure among Bach's church cantatas, it begins with a chorale and ends with a complex choral movement on a quotation from the Gospel of John. Bach derived the two arias from his Hunting Cantata.
Hana Blažíková is a Czech soprano and harpist. She is focused on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, appearing internationally. She has recorded as a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, among many others.
Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, BWV 157, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig in 1726/27 to a libretto by Picander. The first known performance was on 6 February 1727 during a memorial service for Johann Christoph von Ponickau in Pomßen near Leipzig. The work was later assigned to the feast of the Purification celebrated on 2 February.
Midori Suzuki is a Japanese classical soprano, specializing in Baroque music. She has recorded many cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach with the Bach Collegium Japan, both as a soloist and as a member of the ensemble.