This box set, released in 2012, is a compilation of recordings pertaining to the Christmas season from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage undertaken at the turn of the millennium by conductor John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the authentic-instrument English Baroque Soloists. The group toured churches in Europe (ending up in America), performing all of Bach's cantatas on liturgically appropriate days. Each release back then, for no very good reason, featured a Third World child on the cover, similar to the one shown ...
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This box set, released in 2012, is a compilation of recordings pertaining to the Christmas season from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage undertaken at the turn of the millennium by conductor John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the authentic-instrument English Baroque Soloists. The group toured churches in Europe (ending up in America), performing all of Bach's cantatas on liturgically appropriate days. Each release back then, for no very good reason, featured a Third World child on the cover, similar to the one shown in the graphics for this release. Gardiner's cantata cycle, underwritten by none other than the Prince of Wales, is noteworthy for its warm sound, its fervor, and its engagement with the texts of the cantatas. Each release in the cycle featured an extensive exegesis from Gardiner himself, setting the meaning of the cantatas performed against the experience of the musicians in performing them. With this box, you get a much abridged version, and you miss a good deal of the immediacy of...
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