Bach Cantatas Vol. IV • Cantatas for the Nativity includes some of Bach’s most famous choral works: Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61, Das neugeborne Kindelein, BWV 122, Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123, and Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182.

Directed from the organ by Eric Milnes, the four solo singers and instrumentalists deliver an interpretation faithful to historical sources. These works are performed on original instruments, with the choir singing one voice to a part.

Montréal Baroque takes place every year in June in Old Montreal. The festival's founder and director, gambist Susie Napper, makes it a true celebration with unusual and original programs. As an associate of the festival, ATMA co-produces certain concerts, which are then recorded. This sample disc, heralding Montreal Baroque 2005, presents extracts from recordings made at previous festivals, some of which have not yet been released.

In the 17th century, those who would become known as the Acadians “officially” arrived in the New World by sea, in the wake of the Basque whalers and the Portuguese cod-fishermen. It is also by sea that, a century and a half later, they would take the route of exile and deportation. As far as can be remembered, legend and music, as the folklore of Acadia, have been linked to the sea, in moments of triumph like in times of tribulation…

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the establishment of a lasting French colony in America—in Acadia—Suzie LeBlanc, accompanied by a choice of instruments in which classical and folk traditions meet, performs the loveliest songs from the land whence she comes.

Giovanni Gabrieli’s works could be considered the summit of musical expression of the Renaissance, the dramatic climax of three centuries of polyphonic writing. Born in Venice in 1557, he studied among others with Roland de Lassus in Munich before returning to Venice in 1580. From 1584 until his death in 1612, Gabrieli was organist a the St Mark’s Basilica. His compositions feature the use of several choirs opposing each other on different sides of the church. Supple, free, and effective, his music had a very immediate impact on the listener; a creator of the concertante style, Gabrieli’s sense of colour and spatial layout makes him perhaps one of the first musicians of the Baroque Era. Centred around the theme of the Nativity and the Holy Family, the hymns by Gabrieli and other composers from the same period are luxuriant works richly performed here by the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal choir and a wonderful phalanx of sackbut and cornetto players: a beautiful world of sounds for Christmas.

At the time, around 1976, when Arvo Pärt’s oeuvre was about to be reborn in his newfound tintinnabular style, the enthusiasm mustered by the world of ancient music which was opening up around him in his native Estonia was to have, in his own words, “the effect of a midwife on my new music.” The present release by ATMA is unique in that it rekindles that seminal atmosphere in performances of these stunning works—foremost among which the strikingly beautiful Stabat Mater—entirely on early instruments and at the Baroque pitch of A = 415 Hz. The profound voices of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal choir and the Franz Joseph String Quartet also deliver two visions of Pärt’s famous setting of the Christian Creed, Summa, while the Quartet alone is heard in Fratres (originally composed for a string ensemble on early instruments) and the haunting miniature Psalom. Finally, star countertenor Daniel Taylor sings the telling ‘motet’ Es sang vor langen Jahren, on words by the German Romantic poet C.M. von Brentano.

A deep and moving experience.

Compositions descriptive of battles form a minor but distinctive category of music from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. Battle music in the Baroque period was appreciated for its expressive and dramatic potential. It often used fragments of real military music, as well as the obvious trumpet fanfares and rallying cries. The potent and acclaimed cornetto and trombone ensemble Concerto Palatino team up with some of Montreal’s finest early music performers to whip up a storm in these Baroque battle scenes.

Batailles was awarded the 2005 OPUS prize for best CD in the category "Disc of the year - Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Music".

The Orpheus legend was always an subject of inspiration for composers. This CD contains vocal and instrumental music composed in Italy, France, and England at the dawn of the 17th century. Of course it includes excerpts from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, first performed in Mantua in 1607.
English tenor Charles Daniels is a specialist in early music and has made over 60 recordings including Messiah with the Gabrieli Consort and more than 20 discs of Purcell’s music, mainly with the King’s Consort. In his first CD for ATMA, Charles Daniels is accompanied by La Bande Montréal Baroque.

This CD brings together Ensemble Stradivaria, one of France’s foremost Baroque string ensembles, and the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal with the Bande Montréal Baroque in a world-premiere recording of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s (1643-1704) Trois Grands Motets and Messe à 16 voix en 4 chœurs. These pieces have been especially edited for the Montreal Baroque Festival by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. These choral works, including the 4-choir Messe, were recorded in hybrid multi-channel SACD.

June 2005 marks the beginning of ATMA’s ambitious , multi-year project to record and release all 200 of Bach’s sacred cantatas. The first disc features the cantatas for the feast of St John the Baptist ( BWV 7-30-167), with singers Suzie LeBlanc, Daniel Taylor, Charles Daniels, Stephan Macleod, and The Montréal Baroque ensemble conducted by Eric Milnes. ATMA’s Bach cycle incorporates the most recent research on performance practise, confirming that these cantatas were performed one singer to a part, including the choruses. ATMA’s Bach cycle marks the first complete recording of the Bach cantatas performed one-on-a-part, and is also the first to be released in hybrid SACD surround format. This project is created in collaboration with the Montréal Baroque Festival, held each year in the city’s historic district.

Even by Bach’s standards, they are exceptional. All three of them were conceived as grateful celebrations of the ancient feastday of the Archangel Michael . St Michael’s day commemorates the apocalyptic combat and eventual victory of Michael and the angels of Heaven against the armies of Satan. All three of these cantatas are set for a festive orchestra with strings plus three trumpets, drums, and other luxuries (an extra third hautboy, a traverso in Cantata 130, and hautboys doubling on hautbois d’amour or playing oboe da caccia in Cantata 19). A mood of joyful serenity permeates all three cantatas. Cantata 130 contains one of Bach’s best character arias (about the old dragon). The opening of Cantata 19 is one of the most extravagant epics in the cantatas, and the same cantata contains a love aria (to an angel) that is exceedingly seductive. Cantata 149 includes two fascinating solos for bassoon.

Marais published five books of pieces for viol and continuo. The most exceptional volume was the fourth, which appeared in 1717. It contains these two Pièces à trois s violes. Marais noted that such pieces, with three independent parts, had never before been written in France. Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, to whom the elegy in the second volume was dedicated, was a renowned teacher of a number of prominent viol players, including Marais. Marais’s elegy for Lully, with whom he had studied composition, also appeared in the same volume. Wieland Kuijken is the guest of the viola da gamba duo Les Voix humaines, who celebrate their twentieth anniversary this year. He will return to Quebec to participate in the Festival Montréal Baroque, which will be held in Old Montreal from June 22-25, 2006.

In addition to his compositions for viola da gamba, Marin Marais wrote four operas, including Semele, composed in 1709. The Bande Montréal Baroque plays the overture and dance pieces from this magnificent work which features a lovely variety of rhythm and orchestral colour. The chaconne from Act II is particularly remarkable for its richness and its contrasts and is the highpoint of this orchestral suite.

This recording brings together the cantatas dedicated to the cult of the Virgin Mary. The cantata BWV 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How beautifully shines the morning star,), was written for the day of the Annunciation, and is one of Bach’s most well-known works; the cantata BWV 82, Ich habe genug (I have enough), for the feast of the Purification (Candlemas), and the cantata BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and mouth and deed and life), for the feast of the Visitation.

ATMA’s Bach cycle incorporates the most recent research on performance practise, confirming that these cantatas were originally performed one singer to a part, including the choruses. This cycle marks the first complete recordings of the Bach cantatas performed one-on-a-part, and is also the first to be released in hybrid SACD format.