Bach: Magnificat
Bach's setting of the Magnificat is one of his most often-recorded vocal  works; as a rule, it's paired with one of Bach's lavishly scored festal  cantatas. (TheEaster Oratorioseems to be a current favorite.) Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan had  a different idea: they've paired Bach's Magnificat with roughly contemporary  settings by Johann Kuhnau, who was Bach's immediate predecessor in Leipzig, and  Jan Dismas Zelenka, who was a composer at the court of Saxony in Dresden.  Zelenka is an interesting composer, among the most underrated of the Baroque  era. His writing is less dense and intricate than Bach's--at times it looks  forward to the simpler, more elegant style ofHaydnandC.P.E. Bach. Zelenka knew his  counterpoint, however, and was fond of slipping the occasional surprising chord  change into his music. The two Magnificat settings by Zelenka presented here are  relatively short (about 10 minutes each) and cover most of the text in their  opening movements, which are extended choruses with full orchestra and florid  soprano solos; each concludes with a splendid fugal "Amen" along the lines of  the one Handel used to concludeMessiah. Kuhnau's  Magnificat, on the other hand, has a format much like Bach's: each verse of the  canticle is set as a separate short movement, with choruses and solo movements  alternating. Set beside Bach's dazzling setting, Kuhnau's can't help but seem  bland, but it's festive and pleasant to hear. As for the Bach--well, the BCJ has  an awful lot of competition; they don't quite achieve the gusto ofGardiner, the radiance ofKoopman, or the sheer manic energy  ofParrott, but Suzuki and his  choir truly get the measure of such fugal choruses as "Sicut locutus" (and  Zelenka's "Amen" choruses), and they acquit themselves well overall.  Countertenor Akira Tachikawa has done plenty of ensemble singing in Europe with  such groups asConcerto VocaleandEnsemble Gilles Binchois; he  copes well enough here, but doesn't seem to have yet the soloistic flair of his  fellowsYoshikazu MeraandRobin Blaze. Bass soloist Chiyuki  Urano is somewhat stolid; tenor Gerd Türk sings eloquently (if with a bit  of strain). The two sopranos, however, get the most to sing, and the bright,  clear voices of Miah Persson and Yukari Nonoshita steal this show entirely.--Matthew Westphal