Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor & Bach-Orchester’s 1964 recordings for Archiv Produktion of J. S. Bach’s Cantatas 147 (‘Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben’) & 60 (‘O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort’).

Leipzig, including St Thomas’s, the church where Bach’s Cantatas were first-performed on Sunday mornings

Cantata 60 begins at 32:55.

Yesterday in ‘Building a Library’ (Record Review, BBC Radio 3) Jeremy Summerly nominated this recording of Cantata 147 as one of his top choices. Understandable. The work itself includes two references to the chorale that we know as ‘Jesu, joy of man’s desiring’, while the final movement of Cantata 60 is as quoted by Berg in his Violin Concerto. On the strength of these Cantatas, in these performances, this is repertoire I’d like to explore.

Karl Richter plays organ works by J. S. Bach. Recorded 1964 for DG at Jaegersborg Church, Denmark.