Bach Cantatas 18

As the much awaited last volume of the Bach Cantatas Pilgrimage, it is one of the most talked about musical events of the last decade. This is an anthology of the Christmas period, combining cantatas for Christmas Day and the Epiphany. The album opens with Christen, atzet diesen Tag (Christians, engrave this Day), which was performed on Christmas Day 1999 to launch the year-long pilgrimage. This is one of Bach's best known cantatas. The accompagnato recit was sung by Bernarda Fink to great acclaim. The cantatas on this album display a great variety of dramatic expression. Both Mein Liebster Jesus ist verloren (My dearest Jesus is lost) and Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (Beloved Jesus, my Desire) tell the same story but in a different style, expressing different emotions.