CDs recorded by John Hadden -- Taverner Consort and Players - Heart's Solace

Sony Classical SK60155

HEART'S SOLACE Taverner Consort and Players Andrew Parrott J.S.Bach Cantata No. 198, Lass, Furstin, lass noch einen Strahl Motet - Jesu, meine Freude, BWV227 Motet - Komm, Jesu, komm!, BWV229

Gramophone
"There are few choral works of Bach's so delicately woven and deliciously pearly as Lass, Furstin (Trauer Ode - or 'Mourning Ode' - as it is better known), a piece from 1727 which magically juxtaposes funeral symbolism rooted in the past with thoroughly modern eighteenth-century tastes. Andrew Parrott frames this exceptional eulogy, for the beloved Electress of Saxony and Queen of Poland, Christiane Eberhardine, with two motets in a programme entitled "Heart's Solace". The performance of the central work, the only piece with obbligato instruments, is reverently shaped, and as so often with Parrott, articulation is carefully judged and mindfully directed; long-breathed and dignified, the Taverner Consort and Players revel in the opening movement's courtly refinement and Bach's brilliant manipulation of Franco-influenced rhythmic gesture. The instrumental playing - the 'soft' scoring of woodwind, lutes and gambas has a uniquely visceral palette - is the closest since Jurgen Jurgens's mid-1960s recording to capturing the paradoxical state of heartfelt pain and a shimmering spiritual nourishment. Parrott's singers and his discreetly accompanying players demonstrate what an intimate group can achieve in the motet Jesu, meine Freude; it is performed with both elegance and an acute involvement in the musical and rhetorical dialogue, enabled but not caused by the size of the group. Parrott presents a convincing and polished programme, especially in the logic of his extended lines and the outstanding instrumental playing throughout."

The Observer
"...some of the most thrilling and incisive choral singing you are ever likely to encounter..."  

New York Times
"With only ten voices altogether, there is no danger of being overwhelmed. "Heart's Solace" offers a very listenable middle ground for this music, between white-voiced boy choirs and lusher approaches.."

Diapason
"The work is treated by Parrott with a great sweetness which is almost soothing, perfectly idiomatic in a serene light (the orchestra led by Andrew Manze sounds superb)."

Klassik Heute
"In keeping with the current position of research Parrott casts all vocal and instrumental voices with the exception of the Basso continuo as individual parts. It is almost superfluous to say that the resulting quality is only possible with musicians whose technical and performance abilities are far above average but which at the same time can work together as one as an ensemble."

Classic CD
"The "TrauerOde" ("Mourning Ode") is the dark hued centreplece, and the two wonderful motets 'Komm, Jesu, komm" and "Jesu, meine Freude" provide the other elements of the triptych. All three compositions are performed either one or two voices to a part by the Taverner Consort. and seem all the more intimately expressive as a consequence. Another virtually faultless disc. "

Classic FM
"This disc in fact includes a stylish performance of one of JS Bach's most lyrically expressive cantatas. the Trauer-Ode (BWV198). Bach wrote it in 1727 as a memorial to Christiane Eberhardine, Protestant queen of Augustus the Strong. Her religious convictions seem to have struck a chord in the composer, who produced a piece of sublime musical poetry. In this performance Andrew Parrott with his Tavemer Consort and Players, pursues his one-to-a-part approach, which in this instance comes off well. The singing is outstanding and few will remain untouched by the elegiac sensibility which the ensemble projects in the Cantata's opening chorus."

Music Week
"Andrew Parrott's professional chamber choir gets to the spiritual heart of this music with performances of intense passion, light years removed from the colourless approach adopted by many other interpreters."
(Classical CD of the Week)

Amazon.com
"Andrew Parrott's first disc for Sony isn't the most cheerful debut imaginable--two funeral motets and a cantata mourning the death of a Saxon princess. But it's all Bach, so the music, however solemn, is sublime. Parrott experiments with the one-singer-per-part approach he's used for most of his Bach recordings: one motet and the cantata's opening chorus are sung by soloists; the other motet and the cantata's chorales get two singers per part. The singing and playing in the Trauer-Ode cantata are marvelous, probably the best available; the motets are beautifully done as well. This disc is certainly worth having--especially for the Trauer-Ode."

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