Forbes Magazine and Forbes.com –
September 15, 2003

BACH CANTATAS, BWV 82 and 199

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano; Craig Smith, conductor; Orchestra of Emmanuel Music; Nonesuch; $17

The Orchestra of Emmanuel Music has been playing J. S. Bach's cantatas during Sunday services at Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts, since the 1970s. They even perform them on the exact days in the liturgical calendar for which Bach composed them. In other words, these are the go-to guys for the 300-odd surviving cantatas. On this just-released CD, they perform numbers 82 and 199 with the husky-voiced young mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Particularly outstanding is a gorgeous number called "Schlummert ein," ("Now Slumber"), a piece not recommended for driving. By the time Lieberson has finished spiraling through its tender melody, you'll realize that you've
dropped whatever you were doing just to listen. As for the congregants of Emmanuel Church, it's hard not to envy them. They must rarely miss a weekly service.

--Thomas Jackson