Cantata Collective Recording Initiative
In 2020 when live concerts proved impossible during the pandemic, Cantata Collective began an ongoing recording project which has brought the Ensemble’s work to an international audience and has garnered widespread critical acclaim.
The initial recording of 3 cantatas—BWV 84 Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke,
BWV 170 Vergnügte Ruh, and BWV 199 Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut—featured 3 close friends of the Ensemble and superstars of the early music movement, Sherezade Panthaki, Reginald Mobley, and Nicholas McGegan as guests. Released on Centaur Records in the fall of 2021, it prompted Early Music America to write “To the excellent musicians of Cantata Collective : SEND MORE BACH, PLEASE!”. American Record Guide wrote “These are highly polished performances. Solo cantatas with accompaniment of one player to a part produce the intimate feel of chamber music. As an encore this recording concludes with a delightfully lively performance of the well-known duet, Wir eilen, from Cantata 78. The vocal blend of Panthaki and Mobley is nothing short of astounding”
Video excerpts from the first sessions:
For Volume 2, the group collaborated in a virtual concert for the San Francisco Early Music Society recorded at Berkeley's temple of early music, First Congregational Church that featured BWV 54 Widerstehe doch der Sünde and BWV 159 Gott sol allein mein Herze haben with Reginald Mobley and with Nicholas McGegan appearing in a starring role as organ soloist in the monumental BWV 35 Geist und Seele wird verwirret. This beautiful, full-length concert video can be watched below:
With this recording, Reggie reprises his memorable performances with the Collective in 2017 and 2018, and completes his traversal of the Bach cantatas for solo alto.
Cantata Collective returned to St. Stephen's in Belvedere and collaborated with long time favorites Sherezade Panthaki and Paul Max Tipton in two of Bach's 'Dialogue Cantatas', BWV 32 Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen and BWV 49 Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen to be released as Volume 3 in this series.
Concurrent with the cantata recordings, Cantata Collective has begun a series on AVIE Records that includes all of Bach’s major choral works, conducted by McGegan and featuring a full orchestra and chorus. The first release, the St. John Passion, released in 2023, immediately received glowing international press.
“What makes this performance so distinctive is the energy and commitment of the ensemble. We hear not just one more concert performance, but a radiant Good Friday liturgy, where John’s Gospel comes alive… McGegan’s infectious energy is almost tangible throughout.” – David Stancliffe, Early Music Review
“historical performance radical … bold and beautifully constructed … you somehow feel that the singers and the performers are speaking to us directly, there’s an immediacy here” – BBC Radio 3 ‘Record Review’
“In all, this is a beautifully performed and recorded St. John Passion that gives full measure to the work’s remarkable synthesis of devotional and theatrical elements.” – Ken Meltzer, Early Music America
Next came the B Minor Mass.
Critics’ Choice of the Year 2024 – William Gatens, American Record Guide. “an exemplary performance … The soloists are excellent and the technical standard is superb … McGegan draws on a lifetime of experience with this music to produce a coherent and well-paced reading … I would not hesitate to recommend this performance to a listener looking for a first or only recording of the work” – American Record Guide
“Soloists all contribute radiant work with precise diction, wonderful phrasing, and warm vocal tone. It’s a special organization that makes Bach sound fresh and individualistic, yet with such attention to detail, like it might have been performed in the 1700s” – Classical Singer Magazine
The most recent release, the Easter Oratorio and Magnificat was released in April, 2025.
“The Cantata Collective performances are enviably smooth on top, maximally colorful, and a delight to listen to. The orchestra sounds marvelous in the Easter Oratorio’s opening Sinfonia and maintains that exalted level throughout the recording.” – Jason Victor Serinus, San Francisco Classical Voice
“The music, as performed here with expressiveness and sensitivity, conveys heartfelt joy and emotional engagement in ways that reach out across the centuries and well beyond the context in which these works were originally created.” – Mark Estren, infodad.com
“The performance recorded here is everything one might expect of the best early music singers and period instrument players.” – William Gatens, American Record Guide
The St. Matthew Passion, performed to a sold-out house on Bach’s birthday on March 21, 2025 will be released in spring, 2026.
