J.S. Bach: Coffee Cantata & Peasant Cantata (BWV 211, 212) – Kertesi, Failoni Chamber Orchestra, Naxos (CD)

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Product Details

• UPC: 4891030506411
• Catalogue Number: 8.550641
• Brand/Label: Naxos
• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
• Performers: Ingrid Kertesi, soprano · Jozsef Mukk, tenor · István Gáti, bass
• Ensemble: Failoni Chamber Orchestra, Budapest
• Conductor: Mátyás Antál
• Release Year: 1992 (recorded at Festetics Castle, Budapest)
• Genre: Classical – Secular Cantata
• Country of Producing: [confirm] (this section of the back cover is covered by a sticker in the provided photos)

Product Features

• Format: Audio CD, DDD (fully digital recording), Stereo
• Total playing time: 51:42
• Cover artwork: Haymaking, by Bruegel

Overview

Bach's church cantatas get most of the attention, but his two secular comic cantatas here are arguably more fun to actually listen to. The "Coffee Cantata" (Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht!) is a miniature comedy about a father trying to talk his daughter out of her coffee addiction — genuinely funny, especially in the daughter's defiant closing aria refusing to give it up unless she gets a husband who lets her drink freely. The "Peasant Cantata" (Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet) is broader still, written in rustic dialect to celebrate a new local administrator, full of dance rhythms and deliberately unrefined humor that Bach rarely got to indulge elsewhere. Ingrid Kertesi's soprano carries the comic timing of both pieces well, and the Failoni Chamber Orchestra under Mátyás Antál keeps the accompaniment light and dance-driven rather than treating this as solemn Bach. Recorded at Budapest's Festetics Castle, this is a genuinely entertaining way to hear a side of Bach that rarely makes it onto "greatest hits" compilations.

Interesting Facts

• The "Coffee Cantata" satirizes the coffee craze that swept through 18th-century Leipzig, with a plot centered on a father trying to break his daughter's coffee habit.
• The "Peasant Cantata" was written in Upper Saxon dialect rather than standard German, an unusual linguistic choice reflecting its rural, comic subject matter.
• Both works were composed for Leipzig's Collegium Musicum, a secular concert society Bach directed alongside his church duties.
• The Peasant Cantata quotes and parodies popular folk tunes of the day, making it one of Bach's most overtly folk-influenced compositions.
• This recording was made at Festetics Castle in Budapest, an unusual and atmospheric setting shared with a companion Naxos disc of Bach's sacred cantatas BWV 80 and 147.

Track Listing

Coffee Cantata, BWV 211 (Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht) – 24:17 Tracks 1–10

Peasant Cantata, BWV 212 (Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet) – 27:15 Tracks 11–34

Publishers

Naxos, part of the Naxos Music Group, recorded at Festetics Castle, Budapest (producer Tamás Benedek, engineer Gábor Mocsáry, music notes Keith Anderson). Distributed by MVD Music and Video Distribution GmbH, Unterhaching/Munich, Germany.

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