Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56 discography

This is a list of recordings of Bach's cantata Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, a solo cantata for bass or bass-baritone composed for the 19th Sunday after Trinity, first performed on 29 October 1726. In English, it is commonly referred to as the Kreuzstab cantata.^[1][2]

The cantata was recorded as part of some complete and other incomplete series of recordings of Bach's church cantatas. As a solo cantata with expressive music, it has attracted singers outside Bach specialists. It has then often been coupled with another bass solo cantata,

Cantata

Bach composed the church cantata for the 19th Sunday after Trinity, Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, as a solo cantata for bass. It is one of few works that he called a cantata. He led the first performance on 29 October 1726.^[3]

Recordings

According to musicologist Martin Elste, the most frequently recorded cantatas of Bach have been the virtuoso solo cantatas

In 1950–51, 26-year-old Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau featured as soloist in the cantata as part of Karl Ristenpart's project to record all Bach church cantatas with the RIAS Kammerchor and its orchestra, broadcast live by radio in church services. Ristenpart used small ensembles compared to other groups at that period. The project was never completed and in particular omitted Ich habe genug, BWV 82.^[13]

In 1977, Max van Egmond was the soloist in a recording of BWV 56 coupled with BWV 82, with oboist Paul Dombrecht and conductor Frans Brüggen.^[5] Peter Kooy and oboist Marcel Ponseele were the soloists for a recording of the two cantatas and BWV 158, with Philippe Herreweghe conducting Choir and Orchestra of La Chapelle Royale.^[14] In 1997, there was also a live video recording with Klaus Mertens and oboist Marcel Ponseele, directed from the keyboard by Ton Koopman with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir.^[15]

Complete series of Bach's church cantatas

In the series of church cantatas for Telefunken, known as the Teldec series, shared by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt in their pursuit in historically informed performances with all-male singers and period instruments, the Cross-staff cantata was recorded in 1976 by Michael Schopper, the Knabenchor Hannover and the Leonhardt-Consort, conducted by Leonhardt.^[16]

Helmuth Rilling, who recorded all Bach cantatas from 1969 to 1985, recorded the cantata in 1983, with Fischer-Dieskau, the Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart.^[17]

Masaaki Suzuki, who studied historically informed practice in Europe, began recording Bach's church cantatas with the Bach Collegium Japan in 1999, at first not aiming at a complete cycle, but completing all in 2017. They recorded the cantata in 2005, with Peter Kooy as the singer.^[18]