Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56 discography

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This is a list of recordings of Bach's cantata Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, a solo cantata for bass or bass-baritone composed for the 19th Sunday after Trinity, first performed on 29 October 1726. In English, it is commonly referred to as the Kreuzstab cantata.[1][2]

The cantata was recorded as part of some complete and other incomplete series of recordings of Bach's church cantatas. As a solo cantata with expressive music, it has attracted singers outside Bach specialists. It has then often been coupled with another bass solo cantata, Ich habe genug, BWV 82, a paraphrase of the Song of Simeon.

Cantata[edit]

Bach composed the church cantata for the 19th Sunday after Trinity, Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, as a solo cantata for bass. It is one of few works that he called a cantata. He led the first performance on 29 October 1726.[3]

Recordings[edit]

According to musicologist Martin Elste, the most frequently recorded cantatas of Bach have been the virtuoso solo cantatas Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 50 for soprano and obbligato trumpet, Ich habe genug, BWV 82 for bass (with alternative versions for soprano, alto or mezzo-soprano) and the so-called "Kreuzstab cantata" for solo bass or bass-baritone Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56. To these two rewarding choral cantatas should be added: Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4 and the Actus tragicus, BWV 106. The Kreuzstab cantata has been recorded either separately, for example as a selection of Fritz Werner's recordings, or as complete recordings of Bach's sacred cantatas BWV 1–200.[4] As a vocally demanding and expressive Bach cantata, it has often attracted recordings by soloists drawn from the broader world of opera and lieder singers. It is regularly coupled with Ich habe genug, BWV 82, a paraphrase of the Song of Simeon, and an impassioned cantata taking longing for death as its theme.[5] A third work for bass has sometimes been included, the fragmentary cantata Der Friede sei mit dir, BWV 158, related to peace (Friede).[6]

History[edit]

Bass solo cantatas[edit]

The earliest extant recording was a live concert performance, broadcast in 1939, by Texas-born baritone Mack Harrell with Eduard van Beinum conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra:[7] it showed a similar large-scale approach to Bach as Willem Mengelberg, van Beinum's predecessor. There was a second recording in 1958 by Harrell at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland, directed by Robert Shaw with the RCA Victor Orchestra and Choir. For that later recording, Jonathan Woolf writes: "Mack was seemingly the most instinctively noble of singers. There is an unselfconscious gravity in his singing but never one that elides into the statuesque."[7][8]

As a result of mentoring by Harrell at Aspen and then Juilliard School, New York, Kansas-born baritone Barry McDaniel moved to Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, eventually becoming a permanent member of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin,[9] where he acquired the former villa of Third Reich architect Albert Speer near Großer Wannsee.[10] In 1964, at the height of his career, he recorded the Kreuzstab cantata with Fritz Werner, the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra and Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn;[11] taking wide-spanning melismas in a single breath, McDaniel's dignified yet emotional rendition has been rated by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood of Gramophone as being in a league of its own.[11][9][10][12][1]

In 1950–51, 26-year-old Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau featured as soloist in the cantata as part of Karl Ristenpart's project to record all Bach church cantatas with the RIAS Kammerchor and its orchestra, broadcast live by radio in church services. Ristenpart used small ensembles compared to other groups at that period. The project was never completed and in particular omitted Ich habe genug, BWV 82.[13]

In 1977, Max van Egmond was the soloist in a recording of BWV 56 coupled with BWV 82, with oboist Paul Dombrecht and conductor Frans Brüggen.[5] Peter Kooy and oboist Marcel Ponseele were the soloists for a recording of the two cantatas and BWV 158, with Philippe Herreweghe conducting Choir and Orchestra of La Chapelle Royale.[14] In 1997, there was also a live video recording with Klaus Mertens and oboist Marcel Ponseele, directed from the keyboard by Ton Koopman with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir.[15]

Complete series of Bach's church cantatas[edit]

In the series of church cantatas for Telefunken, known as the Teldec series, shared by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt in their pursuit in historically informed performances with all-male singers and period instruments, the Cross-staff cantata was recorded in 1976 by Michael Schopper, the Knabenchor Hannover and the Leonhardt-Consort, conducted by Leonhardt.[16]

Helmuth Rilling, who recorded all Bach cantatas from 1969 to 1985, recorded the cantata in 1983, with Fischer-Dieskau, the Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart.[17]

Pieter Jan Leusink conducted all Bach church cantatas with the Holland Boys Choir and the Netherlands Bach Collegium in historically informed performance, however with women for the solo soprano parts. He completed the project within a year on the occasion of the Bach Year 2000. A reviewer from Gramophone noted: "Leusink's success elsewhere comes largely through his admirably well-judged feeling for tempos and a means of accentuation which drives the music forward inexorably". He recorded the cantata in 1999 with his regular bass Bas Ramselaar.[17]

Masaaki Suzuki, who studied historically informed practice in Europe, began recording Bach's church cantatas with the Bach Collegium Japan in 1999, at first not aiming at a complete cycle, but completing all in 2017. They recorded the cantata in 2005, with Peter Kooy as the singer.[18]

Sigiswald Kuijken recorded a series of church cantatas, combined by their liturgical function, with the ensemble La Petite Bande, with vocalists singing one voice per part (OVPP). They recorded the cantata in 2006, with singer Dominik Wörner.[19]

Table of recordings[edit]

The following table is derived mostly from the listings on the Bach Cantatas website.[15] The table lists the recording's title in the first column, conductor, choirs (for the closing chorale) and orchestra in the second column, the bass soloist in the third (along with the oboist where credited), the label in the fourth, and the year (normally of release) in the sixth column. A seventh column marks if a choir performs with one voice per part (OVPP), and an eighth column shows if the ensemble plays period instruments in historically informed performance.

Recordings of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56
Title Conductor / Choir / Orchestra Soloists Label Year Choir type Instr.
Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Live Radio Recordings, Vol. 1[7] Eduard van Beinum
Unknown
Concertgebouw Orchestra 		Mack Harrell Decca 1939 (1939)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Kantaten BWV 164, 47, 56[13] Karl Ristenpart
RIAS Kammerchor
RIAS Kammerorchester
Archiv 1950–51 (1950–51)
J. S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 56, 82[8] Robert Shaw
RCA Victor Orchestra and Chorus
RCA Victor 1958 (1958)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Kantaten BWV 54, 56, 82[13] Kurt Thomas
Thomanerchor
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
EMI Electrola 1959 (1959)
J. S. Bach: Cantatas Nos. 56, 82[13] Neville Marriner
St Anthony Singers
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Decca 1964 (1964)
Les Grandes Cantates de J. S. Bach Vol. 18[11] Fritz Werner
Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn
Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra
Erato 1964 (1964)
J. S. Bach: Das Kantatenwerk • Complete Cantatas • Les Cantates, Folge / Vol. 14[16] Gustav Leonhardt
Knabenchor Hannover
Leonhardt-Consort
Teldec 1976 (1976) Period
Kreuzstab & Ich Habe Genug[5][20] Frans Brüggen
Sony 1977 (1977) Period
Die Bach Kantate Vol. 4[17] Helmuth Rilling
Gächinger Kantorei
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart
Hänssler 1983 (1983)
Wachet auf! Bach: Cantatas 56 and 140; Motet BWV Anh. 159 Greg Funfgeld
Bach Choir of Bethlehem
Bach Festival Orchestra
  • Daniel Lichti
  • James Mason (ob)
 Dorian Recordings 1989 (1989)
J.S. Bach: Solokantaten Kreuzstabkantate BWV 56; "Der Friede sei mit dir" BWV 158; "Ich habe genug" BWV 82[21] Karl-Friedrich Beringer
Windsbacher Knabenchor
Consortium Musicum
Baier Records 1991 (1991)
Cantates pour Basse – Cantatas for Solo Bass (BWV 56, 82, 158)[14] Philippe Herreweghe
Choir and Orchestra of La Chapelle Royale
Harmonia Mundi France 1991 (1991) Period
Cantatas BWV 56, 82 Joshua Rifkin
The Bach Ensemble
  • Jan Opalach
  • Stephen Hammer (ob)
 L'Oiseau-lyre 1991 (1991) OVPP Period
Bach Cantatas: BWV 82, 158 and 56 Roger Norrington
Salzburger Bachchor
Camerata Academica Salzburg
Decca Records 1999 (1999) Period
Bach Edition Vol. 4 – Cantatas Vol. 1[17] Pieter Jan Leusink
Holland Boys Choir
Netherlands Bach Collegium 		Bas Ramselaar Brilliant Classics 1999 (1999) Period
Bach Cantatas Vol. 10: Potsdam / Wittenberg / For the 19th Sunday after Trinity John Eliot Gardiner
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists 		Peter Harvey Archiv Produktion 2000 (2000) Period
J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 17[22] Ton Koopman
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
Antoine Marchand 2001 (2001) Period
J. S. Bach: Kantaten · Cantatas BWV 82, BWV 158, BWV 56[14] Rainer Kussmaul
Members of RIAS Kammerchor
Berliner Barock Solisten
Deutsche Grammophon 2004 (2004)
J.S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 41 (Solo Cantatas) – BWV 56, 82, 84, 158[18] Masaaki Suzuki
Bach Collegium Japan 		Peter Kooy BIS 2005 (2005) OVPP Period
J. S. Bach: Kantaten · Cantatas BWV 82, BWV 158, BWV 56[23] Michael Schneider
Thomanerchor
La Stagione 		Gotthold Schwarz Capriccio 2006 (2006) Period
J. S. Bach: Cantatas for the Complete Liturgical Year Vol. 1 Cantatas BWV 55, 56, 98, 180[19] Sigiswald Kuijken
La Petite Bande 		Dominik Wörner Accent 2006 (2006) OVPP Period
Bach Cantatas for Bass BWV 82/158/56/203[6] Ryo Terakado
il Gardellino
Passacaille 2013 (2013) Period
Matthias Goerne – Bach Cantatas for Bass [24] Gottfried von der Goltz
Freiburger Barockorchester
Harmonia Mundi 2017 (2017) Period
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantatas for bass. Stephan McLeod, Gli Angeli Genève[25] Stephan MacLeod
Gli Angeli Genève
Claves 50-3049 2022 (2022) Period


References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Freeman-Attwoood, Jonathan (2005). "Bach Cantatas, Vol. 17". Gramophone.
  2. ^ Dürr & Jones 2006, p. 290
  3. ^ Schweitzer 1911.
  4. ^ Elste, Martin (2000). "Die geistlichen Kantaten BWV 1–200" [Sacred cantatas BWV 1–200]. Meilensteine der Bach-Interpretation 1750–2000 [Milestones in Bach interpretation 1750–2000] (in German). Springer. pp. 151–169. doi:10.1007/978-3-476-03792-3_14. ISBN 9783476037923.
  5. ^ a b c Anderson 1989.
  6. ^ a b Lange 2013.
  7. ^ a b c Classical CD 2018.
  8. ^ a b Woolf 2012.
  9. ^ a b Aron, Arjeh (April–June 2012). "Barry McDaniel – A Singer's Life (four-part email interview)". Bach Cantatas Website. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  10. ^ a b Spillman, Rob (2016). All Tomorrow's Parties: A Memoir. Grove Press. ISBN 9780802190406.
  11. ^ a b c Quinn 2005.
  12. ^ Le Tissier, Tony (2004). The Third Reich: Then and Now. After the Battle. p. 86. ISBN 9781399076531.
  13. ^ a b c d Quinn 2012.
  14. ^ a b c Cookson 2010.
  15. ^ a b Oron 2018.
  16. ^ a b Finscher 1976.
  17. ^ a b c d Classical Music Online 2022.
  18. ^ a b BIS 2005.
  19. ^ a b mdt 2006.
  20. ^ Shiloni 1998.
  21. ^ Bayer.
  22. ^ Challenge 2001.
  23. ^ JPC 2006.
  24. ^ highresaudio 2017.
  25. ^ Fonoteca 2022.

Cited sources[edit]

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