Kantaten - »Es Erhub Sich Ein Streit« BWV 19 / »Oh Ewigkeit, Du Donnerwort« BWV 20

This recording is part of the landmark project by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt to record the complete sacred cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach using period instruments and performance practices. Released by Telefunken in 1973, these specific performances of BWV 19 and BWV 20 feature the Concentus Musicus Wien, an ensemble founded by Harnoncourt in 1953 to explore the authentic sonorities of the baroque era. The series was revolutionary for its time, eschewing the heavy, romanticized interpretations prevalent in the mid-twentieth century in favor of historical accuracy, gut strings, and natural trumpets.

The collaboration included the Wiener Sängerknaben and Chorus Viennensis, capturing the stylistic transition toward a boys' choir sound intended to mirror the vocal textures Bach would have utilized in Leipzig. Kurt Equiluz and Max van Egmond were foundational contributors to this series, and their work on these cantatas remains highly regarded for its technical precision and intellectual depth. While the project was met with some controversy among traditionalists, it fundamentally altered the course of Bach performance, setting a benchmark for historically informed scholarship that remains widely influential among musicians and listeners today.