Stephan MacLeod | |
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Born | 1971 (age 50–51) Geneva, Switzerland |
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Stephan MacLeod is a Swiss bass and conductor focused on Baroque music in historically informed performance who has performed internationally. He was first bass of the Huelgas Ensemble for five years and took part in the complete recording of Bach's cantatas by Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan as both a soloist and a choir member. He founded his own ensemble, Gli Angeli Genève, and has also been professor of singing at the Lausanne Conservatory.
MacLeod was born in Geneva. He first studied piano and violin, then voice in his hometown, then at the Musikhochschule Köln with Kurt Moll, and in Lausanne, with Gary Magby. In Cologne, he became interested in historically informed performance and collaborated with Reinhard Goebel and his Musica Antiqua Köln. He was first bass of the Huelgas Ensemble for five years. He worked further with Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt, Jordi Savall, and others. [1] He appeared in Europe and beyond. [2]
He founded the ensemble Gli Angeli Genève of voices and instruments in 2005, singing and directing the group. [2] Their first CD was in 2008 named Editor's Choice by Gramophone. He has been professor of singing at the Haute Ecole de Musique of Lausanne from 2013. [1] [2]
MacLeod made over 75 CDs. [2] He took part in the complete recording of Bach's cantatas by Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan as both a soloist and a choir member. For the first CD of Gli Angeli Genève, he chose Baroque German cantatas by Buxtehude, Bruhns, Telemann and finally Bach's Ich habe genug, BWV 82. [3] Their 2021 recording of Bach's Mass in B minor, with ten singers and 27 instrumentalists, was described by a reviewer from Gramophone as "characterised by swift momentum, crisp articulation and benevolent attention to detail". [4]
Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211, also known as the Coffee Cantata, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it probably between 1732 and 1735. Although classified as a cantata, it is essentially a miniature comic opera. In a satirical commentary, the cantata amusingly tells of an addiction to coffee.
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.
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.
Robin Blaze is an English countertenor.
Gli Angeli Genève is a Baroque ensemble based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 2005 by the bass-baritone, Stephan MacLeod, their debut performance was at the Festival Amadeus de Meinier. The ensemble performs an annual season of four concerts in Geneva, primarily dedicated to Bach's cantatas and records for Sony Classical. Their debut album, German Baroque Cantatas Vol. 1 was the Gramophone "Editor's Choice" for November 2008. Their performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Victoria Hall in Geneva was broadcast by Radio Suisse Romande.
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 Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz, BWV 138, in Leipzig for the 15th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 5 September 1723. The text by an unknown author includes three stanzas from the hymn of the same name. Its text and melody were formerly attributed to Hans Sachs, but were written by an unknown hymn writer. The cantata has seven movements and is scored for SATB soloists and choir, two oboes d'amore, two violins, viola and basso continuo. The cantata has features of a chorale cantata although it was written a year before Bach's annual cycle of chorale cantatas. Bach used an aria as the base of the Gratias of his Missa in G major.
Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it for the second Sunday after Easter in Leipzig and first performed it on 23 April 1724.
Wo gehest du hin?, BWV 166, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Cantate, the fourth Sunday after Easter, and first performed it on 7 May 1724.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe, BWV 167 in Leipzig for the Feast of St. John the Baptist and first performed it on 24 June 1723. It is part of his first cantata cycle in Leipzig.
Marius van Altena, born Marius Hendrikus Schweppe is a Dutch tenor. He was one of the pioneers of historically informed performance of Baroque and Renaissance music. He has also sung Baroque opera, worked as conductor and as an academic teacher.
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.
Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten, BWV 207.2, is a secular cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and likely premiered in 1735. It utilizes the music from the third movement of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major.
Max Ciolek is a German tenor, conductor and composer. He is the founder of VokalEnsemble Köln. As a singer, he is noted for his recordings of Bach works, particularly the Evangelist in his Passions, but he has recorded music from all periods of classical music and has appeared internationally.
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.
This article includes a list of commercial recordings of the Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachts-Oratorium), BWV 248, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bach composed Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, as chorale cantata for the Marian feast of the Annunciation, for a first performance in a church service in Leipzig on 25 March 1725. The cantata, for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, four-part choir and Baroque orchestra, takes around 25 minutes to perform.
This is a list of recordings of Bach's cantata Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, a solo cantata for bass or bass-baritone composed for the 19th Sunday after Trinity, first performed on 29 October 1726. In English, it is commonly referred to as the Kreuzstab cantata.