Imbuing the text of Bach’s secular cantatas with character can create many a delight that further distinguishes them from the sacred cantatas’ more somber tone. The disadvantage of successfully groaning lines like “…er brummt ja wie ein Zeidelbär” (“…he groans like a honey bear”) with a genuinely ugly tone is that they sound, well… ugly. Paul Agnew, in the opening recitative of the famous “Coffee Cantata” (Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht” BWV 211) goes for some sort of expressive realism and comes up with authentic unpleasantness. A very limited success, indeed – but fortunately passed by quickly enough to ignore.

Klaus Mertens and Anne Grimm meanwhile act the rest of this domestic ‘coffee vs. future husband’ drama out very nicely – and they remind me why I so loved this recording when first came out in the mid-90s as part of Ton Koopman’s complete Cantata series. Now re-issued at high mid-price, several famous couplings are available on single discs – including the Coffee- and Peasant Cantatas, the Marian Feast Cantatas , and four out of five Wedding Cantatas.

BWV 211, charming though it is and despite my early listener’s allegiance to it, cannot compete with Helmut Rilling’s version for the singing alone. Christine Schäfer and Thomas Quasthoff are simply easier on the ears. And if it need be an original instrument recording, Masaaki Suzuki has equally fast tempos to offer and, though Mertens is preferable to Stephan Schreckenberger, an impeccably delightful soprano in the stupendous Carolyn Sampson.

BWV 212 – “Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet” – with Els Bongers and Mertens does not call better versions to mind: Mme. Bongers’ soprano is stylish and the playing fleet. Fleeter, indeed, than one might expect from a Peasant Cantata. Koopman’s harpsichord and Jaap ter Linden’s cello provide the expert support for Mertens in the short, three-movement “Amore traditore” BWV 203 that fills this disc out to a reasonably generous 65 minutes. Less generous – especially at that price – is the absence of a libretto, the on-line availability of which not being an adequate substitute.

For a first Koopman-Bach disc (which is very recommendable in any case) the disc with the Wedding Cantatas might be better suited.

Other reviews of Koopman Bach Cantatas can be found here:
Complete Cantatas, Volume 1
Complete Cantatas, Volume 2
Marian Feats Cantatas


Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Waking up