World premiere recording for new Bach aria

I am afraid I am rather cynical of industry award bashes. I've attended enough in my time, and they are usually an excuse for an extravaganza of corporate hospitality (aka getting gently smashed at the customers expense) mixed with group ego massaging.

So its great to see some really worthy recordings getting recognition in the Classic FM Gramophone Awards. Here are the six recordings that have been shortlisted for the Record of the Year, which will be announced on September 29th.

Particularly pleasing to see Sir John Eliot Gardiner's (photo above) Bach Cantata Pilgrimage Volume 1 winning the Baroque Vocal category as well as being shortlisted for Record of the Year. I enthused about this new SDG recording in my post Soli Deo Gloria. There is online voting for the Record of the Year, I'll be throwing my lot in with the Bach Cantatas.

SDG's Bach programme links me neatly to another news item. Back in June it was announced that a totally unknown work by J.S.Bach had been discovered by a researcher from the Leipzig Bach archive in the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar (see page from score below). The work was an aria for soprano, strings, and basso continuo composed in 1713 for Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar. This followed closely on the heels of the discovery by a Melbourne University researcher of an unknown 11-movement Dixit Dominus, based on Psalm 109 for choir and orchestra, by Vivaldi which I reported on recently.

Now comes the news that the next release from SDG includes the world premiere recording of the recently discovered Bach aria. Alles mit Gott BWV 1127 lasts for 12 minutes, and is sung by soprano Elin Manahan Thomas with the principals of the English Baroque Soloists. This new release (SDG 114) is available on Monday 5th September. It is not part of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage series. The new aria is coupled with a selection of arias and choruses from forthcoming SDG releases in a kind of Bach Cantata 'greatest hits' preview album. There is an audio sample on the SDG web site, but it doesn't seem to be working just yet.

Finally this link will take you to a useful resource in the form of a search engine specific to the SDG series and all existing Bach recordings by John Eliot Gardiner.

If you enjoyed this post take an overgrown path to Soli Deo Gloria.

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