Eternal Fire

SDG is proud to present its first compilation, featuring a superb collection of the greatest choruses from the award-winning Bach Cantatas series, hand picked by world renowned conductor John Eliot Gardiner.

On Christmas Day 1999 a unique celebration of the new millennium began in the Herderkirche in Weimar, Germany: the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner set out to perform all Johann Sebastian Bach’s surviving church cantatas in the course of the year 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death.

The fourteen choruses heard here were recorded during the course of the Pilgrimage and each exhibit clearly Bach’s depth, originality and incomparable genius.

Jonathan Freeman-Attwood in the booklet note describes each chorus as a masterpiece in its own right and that each displays “an almost unfathomable emotional range wedded to intellectual depth and layered with tireless invention, meaning and beauty.”

‘Eternal fire’ is the perfect introduction to the glory and grandeur of Bach’s wonderful choral universe. An essential purchase for lovers of Bach and classical music.

"...Both choir and orchestra deliver gripping and consistently superb accounts, with Gardiner’s usual interpretive depth and muscularity in evidence from beginning to end; the occasional soloists are outstanding."

Lindsay Koob

American Record Guide - May/June 2010

"This is a blast from end to end, and if there’s anyone left who hasn’t made up their mind about Bach, this is the kind of recording that could tilt them over into the fan category.It’s a compilation of highlights from a world tour ...It’s like the highlight reel on sports channel on Sunday night, and it shows, as Gardner has sought to do for decades, what a resourceful orchestrator Bach was when he had a full orchestra and choir firing on all cylinders. Moods range from tender to glowering. Textures change all the time." "...This is a Bach of heart and brawn, not just brain."

Paul Wells

Macleans.ca - 14 March 2010

"A greatest hits CD from the Monteverdi Choir? Yes and rather welcome it is, too. It’s drawn from its Millennium Bach Cantata pilgrimage and we are treated to 14 of the great choruses, each a miniature masterpiece. From the dramatic opening “O ewiges Feuer” (BWV 34), with its thrilling trumpets and drums, to the heartrendingly sorrowful “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagan” (BWV 12), each is a perfectly polished gem. Give yourself an early Christmas present."

Stephen Pritchard

The Observer - 4 November 2009

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Eternal Fire

Gardiner, John Eliot

William Towers

Robin Tyson

Julian Clarkson

Katherine Fuge

Brigitte Geller

Mark Padmore

The Monteverdi Choir

The English Baroque Soloists

Isabella de Sabata

Choir

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Eternal fire