RIAS-Kammerorchester (Chamber Orchestra)

Founded: 1946 - Berlin, Germany

For everyone who is interested in the history of Bach interpretation and in the development of Germany’s post-1945 cultural rebuilding, these recordings represent a significant enrichment. From 1946, Karl Ristenpart established choral and orchestral ensembles at the RIAS Berlin, directing the RIAS-Kammerchor and the RIAS-Kammerorchester. With these ensembles, and emerging young singers (including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Helmut Krebs and Agnes Giebel), Karl Ristenpart and Elsa Schiller, then head of music at the RIAS, embarked in 1947 upon a recording series of the complete Bach cantatas. However, it proved impossible to realise the project in its entirety. The 29 cantatas which survive in the RIAS archives document a Bach ideal which is pioneering even by today’s standards: thanks to small-scale forces the musical structures are distinct and transparent, and the singers link their articulation to that of the instrumentalists.This interpretation, which is free of any monumentalism, paved the way, aesthetically, for historically informed performance practice.

Source: Liner notes to the 9-CD album “The RIAS Bach Cantatas Project (1949-1952)” (Audite, 2012)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (February 2012)

Karl Ristenpart: Short Biography | Saar Chamber Orchestra | RIAS-Kammerchor | RIAS-Kammerorchester | Recordings of Vocal Works | Recordings of Instrumental Works | General Discussions

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