COMPOSERS: Jcf Bach
LABELS: CPO
WORKS: Cassandra
PERFORMER: Lena Susanne Norin (alto); Das Kleine Konzert/Hermann Max
CATALOGUE NO: 999 593-2
The third of JS Bach’s famous musical sons, Johann Christoph Friedrich, was, on this showing, a fluent purveyor of the contemporary lingua franca, with a graceful line in Italianate melody. But his decorous galant idiom is patently inadequate for the cantata’s more gruesome and apocalyptic moments. No serious complaints about the singing or playing, though the smooth-toned alto soloist could have injected more drama into the recitatives.
Richard Wigmore