Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Damien Guillon, who has been proving himself as an interpreter of the more spiritual side of Baroque music, here makes his debut on the Glossa label both as countertenor soloist and director. In an interesting pairing of Bach and Vivaldi psalm settings, "Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden" (BWV 1083) and "Nisi Dominus" (RV 608), Guillon directs his ensemble Le Banquet Céleste, with guest soprano Céline Scheen joining him for the Bach piece. Whilst he was Konzertmeister in Weimar, Johann Sebastian Bach was entrusted with transcribing scores by Vivaldi brought back from Amsterdam which built on an existing interest in Italian music. Vivaldi would have employed the concerto logic also in his sacred vocal works, such as the early "Nisi Dominus" recorded here. It was however a Neapolitan composer from the next generation, G B Pergolesi, whose music Bach turned to as the basis for a setting of Psalm 51, "Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden". The result was a magisterially rendered reworking in parody form of Pergolesi's theatrical (and Catholic) Stabat Mater, adjusted by Bach to accommodate the different demands of the German Protestant text and Lutheran theology. The result is something special and the entwining of the vocal lines from Guillon and Scheen makes it well worth hearing. Personally I am not especially fond of countertenors and although I admit that Damien Guillon is one of the best I would prefer to hear a female alto on this piece. However it is Guillon's show and he carries it off with the assistance of Mme Scheen. In the accompanying "Nisi Dominus" the only vocal is from Guillon and while he again sings well and Le Banquet Céleste continue to play exquisitely I did not enjoy the end result quite as much but that, no doubt, is my fault.

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