Bach: Coffee Cantata, Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211, Part 1 of 2

Thomas Crawford, Music Director and Founder
American Classical Orchestra
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 8 p.m.
Church of the Blessed Sacrament
Music of J.S. Bach 16 8 5 -175 0

Cantata: Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211, Coffee Cantata
libretto by Christian Friedrich Henrici
Kristen Hahn - Soprano, Steven Moore - Baritone, Alex Guerrero - Tenor

The recording of the February 24, 2010 "All Bach Program" was made possible in part with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

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[Susannah MacDonald]

Never sing Bach in English! Ever!

[dezangerman]

Go to the Bach Cantatas website and you can find them all there, scores, translations, original texts etc. And it's all for free.

[Susannah MacDonald]

That is true - but the fit is odd.

[Zeyar Shwe]

Whatever you do to Bach's music, sing in Mongolian, Tibetan or any languauge, the genius of Bach will shine through. Yes, the best will always be in German.

[tervito]

Ah, that clarifies. You're just a teutonophobe. Thought you were objecting to the translated recitatives. As for scrotum nailing, the luscious Bulle Ogier perpetrated that in Barbet Schroeder's Maîtresse, and she's French not German.

[Robert J. Williamson]

No thanks, the point is that I'm not a sadomasochist and so had to get out of this concert invite when I heard this. Bach was German and they love a bit of sadomasochism so that explains this inane babbling to music. They probably listen to this and then go and get their scrotum nailed to a table. For me both sound equally bad ways to spend an evening.

[tervito]

Distant relative of Reynaldo.

[tervito]

The first time I was blessed to hear the Christmas Oratorio -- which is ridiculously underperformed in the U.S. -- it was in English, at Carnegie Hall, with a fantastic lineup of soloists that include mezzo Catherine Robbin. I'll take my Weihnachtsoratorium any way I can get it, thank you.

[tervito]

Which foot? I'd be happy to oblige. What a stick-in-the-mud.

[tervito]

Those getting their knickers bunched up about the translated recitatives ... have presumably never heard Julius Caesar in German with Popp, Berry, Ludwig, and Wunderlich; nor Wozzeck in Italian with Gobbi. This is a perfectly lovely version of the coffee cantata, which after all isn't grand opera. I rather like this suite of soloists and the instrumentalists are quite alert and nuanced. Some of your stuffed shirts really need to lighten up and grow a pair (of ears, that is)!

[Robert J. Williamson]

Just awful. Prefer to be shot in the foot than sit through this.