Cantata No. 19 "Es Erhub Sich Ein Streit" / Cantata No. 191 "Gloria In Excelsis Deo"

This release is part of Helmuth Rilling’s monumental project to record the complete sacred cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, a multi-year undertaking that remains one of the most comprehensive surveys of the composer's choral output. Released by the Musical Heritage Society in 1972, this specific disc features Cantata No. 19, 'Es erhub sich ein Streit', written for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, and Cantata No. 191, 'Gloria in excelsis Deo', which utilizes sections of what would later become the Gloria of the Mass in B Minor.

The production captures the collaborative spirit of the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart under Rilling’s rigorous direction. Rilling, a scholar and conductor deeply embedded in the German liturgical tradition, sought a balance between historical awareness and the expressive possibilities of modern performance. This recording is representative of the mid-20th-century approach to Bach, emphasizing clarity of choral texture and precise instrumental articulation, and it was instrumental in bringing Rilling’s interpretations to a wider audience through the subscription-based model of the Musical Heritage Society.