BACH: MOTETS

Taken together these motets and quasi-motets form one of the peaks of Bach s art as a composer of choral music. Compressed and complex they make enormous demands on performers requiring exceptional virtuosity stamina and sensitivity to abrupt changes of mood and texture. Bach s characteristically skilful use of fugue canon and counterpoint makes this music endlessly fascinating but most of all these are works of emotional power revealing Bach s compassionate nature the dancing joy he takes in praising God and his total certainty as he contemplates death. John Eliot Gardiner s extraordinary technical and interpretative skills ensure recognition of the motets and cantatas as some of the best of Bach. A key figure in today s musical landscape John Eliot Gardiner has established a number of ensembles both instrumental and vocal that he directs in a wide-ranging repertoire. Baroque music with which he first made his name remains very important to him particularly the works of Johann Sebastian Bach; he has even published a major biographical study of the composer Music in the Castle of Heaven.